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New Poetry Contest: See the Sea - Henry E. - 06/23/23
Contest: Winners
New Poetry Contest: See the Sea
Subsurface Seas
One journey’s almost at an end; I must
at last be near the ocean mysteries
that lie beneath Europa’s icy crust.
My melting-bores break through to briny seas
no human could explore: too far, too deep.
Machines make better scouts. My carapace
(and all within) is sterilized to keep
invading microbes from this precious place.
I find volcanic rifts where chimneys soar
into the gloom. Near plumes of scalding brine
from smokers, alien octopuses shine
their speech of scintillating photophores.
Another journey’s just begun; I’ve found
that awesome vistas open all around.
Author’s Note: Jupiter’s moon Europa has a surface of ice, but scientists think that miles below there are oceans of liquid water (approximately sixty miles deep!). The environment described in my poem is based on Earth’s deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where extremely hot, mineral-rich water pours out of rock chimneys (called either black smokers or white smokers depending on the color from the minerals involved). Hydrothermal vents have been considered as a possible site where life might have begun on Earth.
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