Poem - The Lost Egg of Caretta caretta

[lynnw]

The Following poem depicts a scenario of the future of the Loggerhead Turtle without projects like the Katelios group. Katelios is a magical part of the island, the Loggerhead Turtle a most mysterious creature …



The Lost Egg of Caretta caretta,


The locals whisper of her nesting site,
the golden sands of Kaminia beach.

She paddles through dark watery dunes
under a moonlit archway
isolated in a historical time warp
of flippers, shell and beaklike lips.

In the cool of the night-shift
photographers shuffle and watch
the slushy breakwater.
She appears like a fossilized rock
with ancient eyes that blink in the shadows.

Bright light pierces the beach like mortar fire
again and again over crumbling sandcastles
littered with cigarette-butt soldiers.

Barnacles phosphoresce on their burdened home,
she slips back into deep water.

At dawn, in a liquid turquoise world,
I hold in the palm of my hand
the last of her lost eggs
like a small unblemished moon.
Snatched by an undercurrent,
tumbled into a reef,
cracked, weeping
and irretrievable.



The Lost Egg of Caretta caretta, was first published as a winning poem in Poetry News, (the newsletter of the Poetry Society) Theme: Ecology/Environment. March 2008, Judge: Niall O’Sullivan.

Lynn Woollacott
April 2008

[Fiona]

Wow... that's a beautiful poem
thanks Lynn!