If you’re a fish and you get sick,
who do you go and see?
The Doctopus will help you —
he’s your undersea GP.
He’s qualified to treat
watery infections,
and because he has eight hands,
he’ll give you eight injections.
From sore sardines and sneezing sharks
to tonsil-troubled tuna,
the Doctopus will fix you —
you’ll feel much better sooner.
Photo from Stockcake
“I’m rising,” said the sea,
“there’s no room for you and me…”
On Tuvalu, people fear
their home soon will disappear.
The Maldives now are on the brink,
and Kiribati too will sink.
Five Solomon islands already lost,
beneath the rising waves were tossed.
Do we ignore the ocean’s drive,
or will we help our friends survive?
One million face uncertainty,
in a global warming catastrophe.
Photo by Asad Photo Maldives
(in response to Prompt #4)
In the sea live many ghosts
Of pirates, convicts and more.
Lost sunken treasure.
The remnants of war.
In my yard are fossils
Where the sea used to be,
Billions of years ago
Before there was me.
The sea is claiming back the land
On islands, it’s a disaster.
The billion year shift of tides
Is coming. It’s coming even faster.
It’s speeding up as the globe heats up
Is that about how we live?
To slow it down do we need to change
How we live, what we take, what we give?
Give back to the sea by keeping it clean
Of plastics, oil and junk.
Keep the land cool by reusing more
Or one day the land will be sunk.
The tide is turning.
(in response to Prompt #4)
What’s flat like a flapjack
and round like a dish,
has two big strong fins
but no tail? It’s a fish!
This peculiar pelagic
sunbathes each day
and dives like a millstone
to feed on its prey.
Their babies are see-through.
The size of small pips,
they’ve eyes of surprise
and cute kissy lips.
But Sunfish grow up
to weigh over two tonnes.
Devouring sea jellies
is not just for fun!
First published in Double Helix issue #48 (Jun 2021)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
www.doublehelix.csiro.au
For more about these amazing sea creatures, follow the links below
From the Smithsonian magazine Unraveling the Mysteries of the Ocean Sunfish
From Nine News Sunfish: Australian scientists behind discovery about huge yet elusive ocean beast
THE PLASTIC PACIFIC
How much plastic is in the sea?
Fifty-one trillion pieces!
Fifty-one trillion ways to kill
all our ocean species.
Choking, snarling, killingwhales, turtles, and fish;
unless we stop dumping toxic trash
our oceans will diminish.
OTTER SNOT
Does
an otter
have snot
or not?
Whether or not
an otter has
snot,
I know
not.
The sea where we live reflects winter sky
It’s beauty abounds but we don’t question why
We just build it up with our ‘oohs’ and our ‘ahhs’
We write out our feelings sitting warm in our cars
We don’t critisize as we watch the waves soar
We don’t harshly judge or give each wave a score
The beauty you see is untamed, therefore true
And we don’t mind it’s colour as green, black, or blue
Australian Children’s Poetry 