bleached

expressively diverse
that's what we were
colourful
nearly fluid
all lengths
poisonous
a womb
millions into one

boringly uniform
we are the bleached

dead
Notes

Anomalies of the sea surface temperature might induce mass-bleaching of corals. The coral reefs can recover from this bleaching and mortality, but the recovery period is already 10 to 15 years for the fastest growing species. Due to climate change, the frequency of these heating events of the sea surface temperature is growing and will likely make the time between recurrent events too short to recover (Hughes et al. 2018). This will probably lead to extensive decline of coral reefs in some locations. This poem describes what coral reefs once were.   


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