Death Of The Coral Poem by gershon hepner

As brightly colored as the lights of neon
that shine in Piccadilly and Times Square
are reefs of coral in the Caribbean
at which all scuba divers like to stare,
but since the ocean temperature is rising
vast fields of coral shed their gaudy colors
and disappear like ancient glaciers’ icing,
and, dying, leave detritus that is duller
than skeletons of elephants and tigers
which hunters shoot for sport and tusks and skins;
the coral corpses are like counter-Geigers
that measure radiation of the sins
that we commit against the earth’s estate,
subduing skies and oceans and the land
in ways that Genesis one twenty eight
does not condone, and fools misunderstand.



5/22/06