Snorkeling Off Keawakapu Beach by Carolyn Martin

Your April 2 Protection prompt inspired this poem based on one of my favorite vacation spots and activities: snorkeling with turtles on Maui. 

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize where these lovely creatures hang out and watch with awe as they rise for air or swim from beach to beach. The last time I was there, I witnessed turtle-rescue volunteers lug a big critter out of the surf and cut away fishing line that had entangled her. What a dedication!

Images such as the reef, boats, fish lines, the slashed shell, as well as parasites, shivers of sharks, and divers create the specific world the narrator and turtle share––and which I have witnessed. 

The turn in the second stanza adds a current-events theme. “Headline news” motivates the narrator to plan to emigrate from earth above to the sea below. Here mutual protection will be celebrated with local fish: angels, tangs, butterflies. 

I chose to use shorter lines to lend fluidity to the poem, and the lineation breaks make, I hope, make for easy reading. Finally, the ending rhymes––harmonize, butterflies, rise––provide the sense of an upbeat resolution for the narrator and her companion.

Snorkeling Off Keawakapu Beach

where I don’t have to speak to anyone 
except the turtle I hang out with 
on the third reef to the south. 
Ours, a fluid camaraderie: 
she ear-witnesses my splashing kicks
and bemoans my headline news.
I commiserate about boats, fish lines, 
fear, and grief and ask about the slash
on her shell. “A hard year,” she replies 
in turtle-speak and lets me pat her fin. 

“As above, so below,” we almost agree.
But, from what I know of betrayal and loss,
lies and regret, earthlings are drowning
in themselves and I am done with them. 

I’ll find a shelf on her reef so I can listen
for fishermen and scrub parasites 
off her back. She’ll steer me away
from shivers of sharks and divers with spears.
And, if we plan it right, we’ll harmonize 
with choirs of angels, tangs, and butterflies 
singing down the sun, singing up its rise.

Carolyn Martin is a recovering work addict who’s adopted the Spanish proverb, “It is beautiful to do nothing and rest afterwards” as her daily mantra. She is blissfully retired—and resting–– in Clackamas, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in more than 200 publications around the world. For more: www.carolynmartinpoet.com.