Final Thoughts of an Octopus
Istanbul, Türkiye
2024, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Standing vigil in the dense, dark, deeps of the ocean,
I await. Tentacles coiled, squirming, swirling
as if with a mind of their own. Buoying me up as I dart around
glistening. Sea plants, rough against tender flesh, still smelling
of the metallic tang of the crabs slurped in my snapping beak.
Shells shattered, bulky bodies overturned, how clumsy they are,
other denizens of the deep, compared to me, she for whom no space
Is too small, no cage too cunning to command me. And yet after all that,
Still I freely give up life, utterly spent and for what?
Not mere white baubles in cracked oysters that the strange metal whales
seek with such vigor. But something far more precious…
Eggs formed of my own flesh and blood, coursing through my veins
by mytrio of hearts. Strung and drifting in the ocean current in their
writhing festoons. Precious as they are, can they survive?
So Infinitesimal, so naive not recognizing the shadow of death
in all things, but only their own curiosity until it is too late,
ensnared in razor teeth? No, many would not, but miraculously, impossibly
some would survive, and grow to this very moment, clinging to capricious life.
With bright brains filled with cunning and tricks, sinuous bodies of
shifting hues and shapes to outwit even the sharpest teeth and
largest predators. For them surely I could bear to part with life.
But what is any creature before the force of change, sometimes beneficial, but more often
causing untold devastation? And that is what those metal whales seem to embody,
deafening as they storm across, whipping the sea into foam flecked fury.
Countless traps sprung, still more coming, strange objects flung into the sea,
polluting and poisoning any creature which drew near. And still more subtle evils,
as even now the ocean current is increasingly alien. Corroding ridged shells
and remnants of jagged skeletons picked clean of flesh. Filled with warmth,
not of comfort or the dazzling face of the Sun. Not of life, but something far stranger,
like a slow fire gnawing on flesh and devouring all, so that ever my eyes grow dimmer,
not just from the grasping fingers of death, but from the flame flickering always
out of failing sight, yet always burning stronger and stronger, boiling the seas in its fury
But even then there is opportunity for the cunning, the agile, the acute
to slip into rusted cages and feast to utter delight on scuttling crabs,
And swiftly adapt to any situation no matter how arduous.
And just live, rocked on turbulent fate to fortune or doom, to the bitter end.
Reflection
Reflection
I wrote this poem from the point of view of an octopus as they have always been my favorite animal. I have learned a lot about them and their life cycle, but I have been wondering how climate change is affecting them. This led to me learning how there are the more usual negative effects on them as the ocean is waeming and slowly being acidified. But also, with climate change causing increased ocean temperature, even a change of just a few degrees can affect the vision of the octopus negatively, degrading crucial proteins in their eyes. The message I would like to convey is how climate change affects all organisms in countless ways, infinitely nuanced and yet all deserving of attention. There are so many effects including on the many creatures we do not usually hear about. I would like to show how both as individuals and together we must work together against climate change, not only with individual actions such as reducing plastic consumption and ensuring harmful substances do not end up in our oceans, along with reducing countless other potentially harmful actions, but also to work as a community to spread awareness of climate change and other topics such as sustainable energy to work towards a greener future!