The public releases of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings just wrapped up for the year. The annual ritual draws many to the Texas Gulf Coast. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.
Sea Turtles Hatching
Just the tiniest speck
On the sand
Like a stumbling bug
Searching
For home
And there’s that call
Those lulling waves
That are only a few feet away
But the journey
Is a slow march
One tiny flipper
After the other
Hoping the seagulls
Don’t come too close
Hoping you are going
In the right direction
You and all those other
Little marchers
And then
After all those slow
Sandy steps
That first taste
Of saltwater
And then the next wave
Rolls over
And you zip
Into your floating
New world
To the sound of waves
And shoreline
Cheers.
Produced by Laura Rice.
