Coral Canvas
Sterling, VA
2018, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
A canvas, breathtaking
Swirls of colors dance
Lighting up the page
Subtle yet bold
Masterful strokes
Drawing me in
A light to a moth
How could a human
Be capable
Of creating such
Beauty?
Spread across an ocean floor
Is another masterpiece
But of nature’s doing
Sparks of blue
Brilliant greens
Woven together by
Seamstresses of fish
A world Bursting with
Life.
Crackling fire
A frustrated artist
Alone, afraid
Lost it all.
Takes his canvas
Full of everything beautiful
His soul buried
In the strokes of paint
On the surface
And lets it burn
Turn to
Ash.
The spread of reef
Epitome of beauty
Is struggling-
Suffering.
The world is heating up
Coal crackles in the flames
But as CO2 rises
Everyone else Falls.
The color drains from her cheeks
As algae departs the station
The train spirals to nowhere
Fish lay belly-up on the
sandy grave
Unceremonious
Burial.
Turtles and Sea stars, starved
Their life being sucked away
Into waters too warm.
Soon there will be nothing left
Just a canvas, blank
But this time
Will we be allowed
To start over?
Reflection
I wrote this poem about the causes of coral bleaching and its effects on the ecosystem. In the poem, I likened the coral reef to an artist’s painting because in my eyes, they both contain immeasurable beauty. However, I wanted to show that both the painting and reef are fragile in their own ways. While the painting goes down in flames, the reef is destroyed by humans and climate change. But to enforce the importance of coral reefs, I also emphasized the effect of a damaged reef on everything else around it. A bleached coral reef has detrimental impacts on the surrounding ecosystem of animals and plants. I hope the metaphor in this poem shows how valuable and priceless coral reefs are. Once a reef is bleached, it is very difficult to recover, and most often leads to its death. If this poem struck a chord with someone and inspired them to help save the reefs, then I have fulfilled my promise as its writer.