{"id":10497,"date":"2025-05-13T20:09:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T01:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/?p=10497"},"modified":"2025-05-13T20:09:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T01:09:51","slug":"sea-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/sea-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n
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2 Poems by John Grey<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

STARFISH<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A starfish sits motionless
on the bottom of a tidepool.
A darting bug
ripples the water
like the tip of a finger
but there’s not a hint of movement
from those outstretched orange arms.
This breathing organism
merely ingests the soft shimmer
of sunlight,
pulses modest rhythms
amid algae-festooned stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEA LIONS<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes they flop up on a rock,
wheeling and dealing for just enough space,
slapping and squirming their way into the comfort
of a warm California sun.
The boats don’t bother them,
nor do the play-acting dolphins.
Their disagreements are only with each other,
a scornful bark, whisker-bristling anger,
at a dark gray body sliding an inch too close.
But suddenly instinct’s whistle blows
and they effortlessly scatter,
swivel smoothly into the thick
of a school of passing anchovy,
a serious feeding frolic devouring the surface fish cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasional orcas, white sharks,
temper their contract with these waters.
Rump scars tell of bloody close encounters.
Or the sea churns foul
and their former resting places
are now rough-edged weapons against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the height of summer, they retreat
to their secluded beach rookeries
females birthing, males lashing out punishment
in a game of territorial Twister.
They’re ever heedful of the sea,
the sun, the dark, life and death,
the susceptibility of the one,
the endurance of the colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


John Grey<\/strong>\u00a0is an Australian poet, U.S. resident. He has been published in\u00a0<\/em>New Plains Review,\u00a0Perceptions,\u00a0Sanskrit,\u00a0South Carolina Review, Gargoyle, Owen Wister Review\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Louisiana
Literature,\u00a0among others.<\/em>

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2 Poems by John Grey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nSea Life | Faith Hope & Fiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/sea-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sea Life | Faith Hope & Fiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2 Poems by John Grey\" 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