Magic memories, Sweet, of you
Who swam with me in oceans, blue.
Swam in deep green grottos warm
Where minnows, brightly painted, swarmed.
We plunged down, deep, to coral beds
To sway with tidal seaweed, red
And conger eels’ ferocious teethed
Now bared… then recoiled back to reef.
Squads of barracuda dashed
Around us, close, in silver flash,
Threatening with long gnashing teeth
Invoking stone cold fear, bequeathed.
Yet hovering, in deep crystal clear
Enraptured and entranced, endeared,
As giant kelp in columns, swayed
And stingrays in battalions, played.
Long grey shark then menaced bye
Ogling us with plate sized eye.
Time, I thought, to swim for shore
Where hot white sands… enticed us more.

M.
Great Barrier Reef
January 1968