benthos

rain in the depths of the sea
fallen beyond the reach of light

we are the clouds of it

in our shelving landscapes
we wipe away our surface dying

we are the living dead

everything unwanted
shed like scurf
drowned as deep
as sorrowful memory

ill-considered ends
abandoned to persist
or return as the ghosts
of fathomless water

till we too are claimed
by sea-bed darkness

in the ocean’s appetite
we are consumed

© BH, 2021

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I've had a long fascination with the names for regions of the ocean. This one must have come up with some chance research into the many others I've toyed with over the years (lagan, flotsam, derelict, jetsam, demersal. pelagic, and so on…). Only a note and a link to Wikipedia…

So here it is, a hymn to the bed of sea and river and everything that lives (or, as it is now, lies dead and inert) there.

Benthos (from Ancient Greek βένθος (bénthos) 'the depths (of the sea)'), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea

Wikipedia entry