At The Golden Coast Seaworld Amusement Park,
or (The Place You Have When You're Not Having The Sea),
I heard the dolphins sing 'Happy Birthday.'
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU:
Just on sunrise a dolphin was taken from the wild QLD waters & suffered stress,
was removed from its natural social group:
Then subjected to a large dose of chlorine to keep the tank sterile.
Eyes & skin were irritated & then death from chlorine poisoning.
The corpse was removed from the performance pool,
before the gates opened, & the crowd poured through,
happy birthday to you.
To the 3000 dolphins in captivity worldwide, jolly good fellows, that
balance balls on their noses, act as water skis, speedboats, somersault etc..
YOU LIVE IN A ZOO:
It was dawn when a dolphin's heart failed, attributed to stress.
Captured dolphins sink worldwide with
decreased lifespans, which no-body can deny, sing happy birthday,
which nobody can deny,
attacked by others in overcrowded conditions.
& on nightfall a suicide, a dolphin ramming the walls of the pool
happy birthday to you, you live in a
zoo,
physical (food reduction) & (psychological) solitary confinement
punishments
as training methods, so that you act like a
fuckwit, & you look like
one too.
IN THE WILD OH IN THE WILD:
Dolphins slip through the waves like zippers at 36 kms per hour
& produce a wide vocabulary of sounds to communicate
& listen to returning echoes to detect movement
& have a highly developed sonar system
& produce sounds in the larynx & blowhole region,
through muscular action,
under water in an ocean,
which nobody can deny & so say all of us.
Underwater wilderness: thrum, click, snap etc..
Out of water zoo: SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
for he's a jolly good fellow,
confusion & distress & so say all of us.
THE OCEAN SINGS TO THE DOLPHIN:
Sounds throw back the ocean world to the wild dolphin.
Underwater topography rises & falls into its deep mystery.
Shorelines are scanned, obstacles, filtered sun & moon
& the presence of ships, some nets, & large marine animals.
DOLPHINS LISTEN:
Hear well in the air, ears are pin holes.
AND THINK:
What do they think about as they swim endlessly around the chlorine pools?
BUT DO NOT BREED:
Captured dolphins suffer a decreased lifespan, activity & breeding.
BUT DO REMEMBER:
what it felt like to swim through thousands of kilometres of ocean water,
DYING EARLIER:
Captured dolphins live a fifth as long as a dolphin in the wild,
but some hang on,
IN BARREN UNNATURAL ENVIRONMENTS.
THOSE JOLLY GOOD FELLOWS:
The strange sad little eyes of the dolphins that flipped backwards
through a hoop of fire,
then hopped sideways along the pool water on their tails & sang
happy birthday, to get their piece of fish,
still live for a chance of an ocean escape.
& THOSE NEW AGE FELLOWS:
live the shallow life in therapeutic 'petting pools,'
highly dosed with burning chlorine,
due to the accumulation of faeces & faces above,
a dropped cigarette butt,
pepsi, chips.
The slow contamination by hundreds of hands,
constantly being put into the tank,
reaching down through shit,
pool water & piss,
to the sad amusement, the jolly good fellow
denied.
