Pacific Days

Washing the barrier reef, the Coral sea, Brings fresh nutrients to the coral blooms, Chrysanthemums in splendour Where fishes of deep orange, blue Wide banded black and yellow Flit without collision Gingerly for shelter From sharp marauding sharks, Whilst dark brown turtles hover over them Like passive guardian angels or dispassionate stars. The shallow water here is a pale azure The deeper cobalt merging into indigo And stays so colour fast for a thousand Miles and more as we sweep eastwards To azure once again, The pale waters and white shores of Vanuatu. The vast Pacific now begins, Wide as lovers' smiles, relays our dreams Past islands with evocative names Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti and Tuamotu Avoiding the doldrums of our days And finally to Chile and Peru. The earth is mostly water. So are we. Our nutrients flow round us too, As those awash within the Coral sea.