Great Barrier Reef

Turns out poetic justice

—for me anyway—

might mean

dying in a flood.

 

At age twelve

I had the privilege

of swimming in The Great Barrier Reef.

Floating among dayglow coral,

a psychedelic spacewalk

through old growth aquatic forest.

 

At age forty

I met myself there

and asked him if

two thousand, seven hundred pounds of CO2

was worth it.

 

I screamed until

my face caught fire;

we only heard

the sound of bubbles

drifting to the surface

as if time

didn’t have a care in the world.

 

The ocean suffers.

Schools of rainbow fish

swirl in sync toward extinction.

Coral withers wishing

it could evolve fins.