O greatest long distance earthly wanderers,
Travelling limits of seemingly limitless seas.
Superlative endurance, Olympians of the sky,
Extreme in size, Royal’s tip-to-tip 3.5 metres.
Hale wise airborne centurions!
Light as a feather, lifetime at sea,
Furthermost range, pure gliders, windiest oceans.
Lifting force to air resistance astoundingly 40:1.
One hundred and twenty-thousand kilometres annually,
Eleven million eight-hundred thousand kilometres lifespan!
Years of courtship, elaborate original wooing dances.
Beak-to-beak touching, headshaking yes to yes and yes to no,
Increasing decreasing tempos, widely exaggerated,
Bill clicking, high steps, low steps, plentiful clacking.
Each partner bows, female ambles away. Spellbinding!
Females seek stamina, lifelong monogamous lovers.
Fortnight honeymoon at sea.
One large egg, five to six parental shifts,
Fifty thousand kilometres, bloodhounds of the sea,
Relentlessly sniffing cold current upwellings,
Krill, squid, jellies, fish, carrion, chick sustenance.
Alas, two billion longline hooks ensnaring feathered masterpieces,
Disdainfully discarded plastic bags mimicking jellyfish, one fatal suffocating gulp.
Hideous fossil fuel heatwaves, fossil fuel droughts, fossil fuel famines,
Seas encroaching drowning breeding islands.
World’s most loyal creatures divorcing.
The Great Ending.
Agitate. Disrupt. Defend.
#EndFossilFuelSubsidies
#ZeroCombustionEconomy2030
#ClimateCatastrophe
#RefusePlastics
#BoycottChineseGoods
#ConsumeLess
#WalkMore
#Smile
#GoVegan
UnearthlyWails
#GenZEmergency
Reese Halter is a bees/trees/seas defender.
His latest book is GenZ Emergency.
Email: HalterBooks@gmail.com for your autographed copy.
In Australia, order from the Bob Brown Foundation by emailing: Contact@BobBrown.org.au
