A Fish's Plea
Everyday they come,
murdering my family
in the name of recreation.
Destroying the tranquility of my home,
denying me the right of life.
"Let us Live!" I cry, in the name of creation,
but the hook sinks lower,
luring many to their deaths.
Just one nibble
and they're gone.
To be proudly displayed,
their gills flapping wildly,
gasping for a last breath.
Never again to be surrounded
by swirling oceans of blue,
now, just blackness.
Is this fair,
that we should have to suffer so?
The agony of dancing
at the end of a fishing line.
"It's only a sport," they say,
the excitement of catching
the one that got away.
Dolefully I look upwards
at the murderous hook,
and I weep to think of my imminent death
as nothing more than
Saturday afternoon entertainment.
Yet all they see is my glassy-eyed stare.
What will you do
when fish are nearly extinct
and the ecology of the seafloor
is destroyed?
Will you care ...?
Miranda Smitheram, year 12, Tamboree Heights QLD
This poem comes from the collection Voices for the Animals - A Collection of Stories and Poems by Australian School Students .
Animal Liberation SA holds the copyright to this work. Permission is granted to teachers to make copies for their own students.