This poem was in an environmental anthology published by Offa’s Press. A great book, despite its name.. it’s called “We’re all in this together”
Salp
Not an acronym
not an imagined science fiction
but a transparent tubular barrel
salp lives in every sea
One to ten centimetres long
in swarms or as solo
salp contracts its circular muscles
through micro plants to feed
In this time of knowledge as to why
icebergs are melting
the desert encroaches
the swelling tsunamis
no one understands how
salp numbers are expanding
Mostly unseen by humans
though a distant distant relative
salp sends its faecal pellets
down to the ocean floor
locking carbon out of its cycle
much longer than even the rainforest
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