Maria Sledmere: the coral channel

symbiotic algae.sour promise of turquoise reef.
acid drips slick on the vulnerable.(.)doyouleave
out the hour like a leaf?such terrible memory
for preservation, goth-coloured purples that bleed
millioning.species.addedNatureforbetterflavour
a forest of salt or rain.(Plato’s khora).needling
fish with lisping fins, brittle to touch the calcine
to variant effect, monitor gold.Mapping.A model
ecology;;;new pallor x earthy liturgic breeding
warming waters for chorus of moreish toxicity
u get to see tissues bleeding.brain textures
wither in chemical tides, skeletons white
where closeness makes zooxanthellae to
homeostasis, actual starvation. longer the last
shallows matter, such degradation on several
hurting levels.(.)acrid scent,dive effect,immune
devastation to existing conditions, preserve
caps to carbon, broadcasted ad in full colour
99% are bleaching,dying,whitening
like sunlight in the full of winter, lurid
pollution of flesh and weather.interminable
catastrophe,daytime etc.primary hues,weakness
breeds corrupted cells.communal virus
expelling algae,mortality rising in heat
no manner for label marine slick sapphire rich
fatten off cholesterols,sure signs for dollar
tampons and fossils.a failing void in each polyp
kiss for a wayward lagoon,a true blue depth.

 

Maria Sledmere is a Glasgow-based writer, critic and MLitt Modernities graduate, with specific interest in Anthropocene aesthetics, dark ecology and metamodernism. She co-edits the post-internet poetry zine SPAM and is a regular contributor to music blogs GoldFlakePaint and RaveChild. Recent work can be found in Adjacent Pineapple, Datableed, L’Éphémère Review, Fluland, From Glasgow to Saturn, Numéro Cinq, Occulum and Zarf. She tweets @mariaxrose.

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