Green Sea Urchin Poem

In the great big ocean, I was born so very small

Shaped like the Eiffel tower, but not so tall at all

Growing up the others, called me echinopluteus

And when I was a young thing, there were millions of us

Where I lived, whole universes were the size of just one drop

Full of unearthly beings all swimming around nonstop

Creations that seemed like things from a dream

Each life form evolved into some new extreme

A beautiful world with stunning sights to see

But it was a treacherous, dangerous world to me

All that I knew in our big ocean blue

Were the things to eat and what would eat you

There were creatures with jaws and teeth sharp as saws

They had long sticky nets and they had very sharp claws

Each day I would swim and shake off the hunch

That sooner or later I’d be somebody’s lunch

I ate what I could from currents passing by

Small plants called algae or whatever was in supply

But all of a sudden one day by surprise

I began to sink and stopped in a place I didn’t recognize

Strange things were happening to my slender form

Compressed and stretched I began to deform

Unrecognizable and with a new spikey style

I gained a shell and became an urchin juvenile

 

I learnt how to walk on hundreds of tube feet

I used burrows to hide and found kelp to eat

I put shells on my head or other things I could grab

To hide from the sea stars and large lurking crabs

My home was a kelp bed with soft dappled light

I would happily munch on it all day and all night

I grew and I grew and in no time at all

I was fifty millimeters wide and thirty tall

But with kelp beds come otters as part of the deal

Who love nothing more than a quick urchin meal

Good news I did learn about those pesky otters

A long while ago they were taken out of our waters

What good fortune I thought as I ate some more kelp

I never would have thought the kelp could need help

I was now an adult full of strength and of pride

I could eat and relax and no longer had to hide

But with no otters around the urchins did abound

And we ate so much kelp there was soon none left to be found

I then lived in a barren empty of food

With thousands of urchins in a foul mood

There was nowhere to go and nothing to do

And soon other problems appeared out of the blue

The water was warmer than I’d ever seen

And it was more acidic than it’d ever been

I feel unwell when hot water comes in on the swell

And when it’s too acidic my shell doesn’t grow well

I was hungry and hot and I even moved slow

And then it became harder and harder to grow

Us urchins did search for new kelp beds to eat

But the kelp could not grow in this new extreme heat

There were too many urchins eating what was left

We needed otters to come back so the kelp could be less stressed

Our whole world had changed and the future looked bleak

I didn’t know what to do and I became very weak

So now I say what I see and I speak for the kelp

They’re threatened and dying and they need our help

I’m only an urchin without so much as a brain

So I need more humans to join my campaign

I’ve heard that it’s people who are threatening my home

Their machines put out heat and plastic, even Styrofoam

These things make our ocean a bad place to live

And while our oceans trying there are things it can’t forgive

Nature is a constant balance and life’s a give and take

Things are getting out of hand and the environments at stake

To not protect our oceans would be a grave mistake

We need to stop polluting and allow our oceans to recuperate

Bring back the otters that you took for your fur coats

And stop driving around in your gas guzzling boats

Stop sitting around when there is work to be done

Much of the damage can already not be undone

I’m an old urchin now and I want to retire

But I cannot rest when the future is so dire

So I’ll continue to tell all that will listen to me

We need to act now to save my home in the sea

 

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