Turtle Tears

Turtle Tears

A leatherback turtle
caught in the wrong millennium
comes ashore one last time.

A long life cut short
by a long line of torture
… dying of detritus.

Hooks worm their way into flesh
necrotic nets garrotte the neck
body buoyed down and drowning.

Turtle tears soak the sand
a final sight of its hatching beach
a final sigh that traverses the world.

Ocean waves crash in the death shell
all ears hear the sighs and cries
too late to untangle the extinction.

Copyright: Glenn Albrecht.

[Written on the news (January 2006) of a two metre long, 150 year old, 350 kilogram, leatherback turtle that beached itself on the Victorian coast and died of injuries incurred as a result of entanglement in discarded fishing and boating gear]