Swimming Alone

Clare Winkler

Collage Poem

 

Up up up he rose

To the surface

Blowing bubbles from his fuzzy nose

Little black eyes taking in the light

And the children on the dock above

As they push and fight

To get a better view

 

There are many contributing factors to why manatees are endangered (boat strikes, cold temperatures, disease, infant mortality), scientists are stumped by what killed the record number in 2013.

 

The blue water sparkles in the fading light, White sand coats the bottom of the river, interrupted buy patches of green algae and  . Green fish dart back and forth and silver ones leap from he water in astounding arcs.

 

A fish to the left

A fish to the right

One on my belly hanging on tight

Cleaning away the filth

 

It is known that 276 manatees were killed in southwestern Florida by a red tide -- toxic algae eaten and breathed in by the animals in fatal quantities.

 

The water is warm and there is plenty of algae for him to munch, the baby plays with the fish on the bottom of the river rolling and scratching his back on the sandy bottom. He sits in a sheltered little bend with protective trees all around, playing until his mamma returns.  

 

Alone he swims

The round little calf

Rising

And sinking

Waiting for his mother to come back

The sun goes down

And still he waits

Alone in the heard

He accepts his fate

 

In the last year, however, something unusual happened to the manatee population -- there were 829 known deaths, the highest annual death toll ever recorded.

 

The heard moves on and still he waits, alone in the cove perhaps it is fate. He waits for his mamma till the sun goes down, and back again. But as the waters grow warm and he must go back to sea he just accepts that it was never meant to be