The island shores run red with blood,
As vermin stalk and kill their prey;
A grisly, feather-strewn display,
As flights are culled with deathly thud.
 
But waste breathes life into the clay,
So nutrients drain from the mud
As vermin stalk and kill their prey;
The island shores run red with blood.
 
The coral bleach and then decay,
Submerged beneath a barren flood;
The only way they can re-bud
Is if the rats become the prey.
The island shores run red with blood.
Coral in the reef of the Chagos Archipelago (Photo Credit: Charles and Anne Sheppard – University of Warwick).
This is a Rondel, inspired by recent research that has found invasive predators