Written August 2025 in response to the ongoing algal bloom across South Australian waters.
Photos from Port Elliot December 2025.
The sandy beaches have become impromptu graves
The ocean is now vomiting up
various creatures from its depths
allowing us a glimpse of what lives…..lived
within the watery world
that bounds our city to the west.
The sandy beaches have become impromptu graves
Yet no seaweed cairns are created in memorial.
We may ask ‘Why?’
and ‘How to fix this now?’
while politicians prevaricate knowing
there is no easy, quick solution to be proffered
to the citizenry.
People and dogs continue to make their way
along the water’s edge.
Some of us may momentarily pause and look
to hazard a guess
at what creature lies at our feet.
And then we all continue on our way
back to paved paths and routine lives.
There is coffee to be drunk
Things to be bought
Money to be made
There is no time to truly grieve.
The sandy beaches have become impromptu graves
It feels wrong to simply become resigned to this
another step in the dying earth,
the further narrowing of healthy places
another casualty in the path of progress.
I want to find the words… the rituals… something
to fully acknowledge my grief for this diseased place
instead of burying it and looking away.
I want to stop and wail –
to unleash my grief like the murky waves
pounding on the sand.
To lament and
then lament some more.
Feel the sorrow breaking me open
and dislodging the heavy disquiet lurking within.
bringing me into connection with country,
turning me towards the necessary responsibility
to our Earth.
Of This Earth 
Did you get to go to any of the grief rituals that people held? There’s been a few. I heard about them through XRSA.
Monica O’Wheel
No I hadn’t heard of any – probably not connected enough into the right networks. good to know that there have been some
I’ll let you know when I hear of the,