Question

In the poem 'Song for the Turtles in the Gulf,' what color is the oil that covers the dead turtle?

(1 point)
Responses

Green-blue
Green-blue

Red-black
Red-black

Dark brown
Dark brown

Murky gray
Murky gray
Song for the Turtles in the Gulf By Linda Hogan
We had been together so very long,

you willing to swim with me

just last month, myself merely small

in the ocean of splendor and light,

the reflections and distortions of us,

and now when I see the man from British Petroleum

lift you up dead from the plastic bin of death,

he with a smile, you burned

and covered with red-black oil, torched

and pained, all I can think is that I loved your life,

the very air you exhaled when you rose,

old great mother, the beautiful swimmer,

the mosaic growth of shell

so detailed, no part of you

simple, meaningless,

or able to be created

by any human,

only destroyed.

How can they learn

the secret importance

of your beaten heart,

the eyes of another intelligence

than ours, maybe greater,

with claws, flippers, plastron1

Forgive us for being thrown off true,

for our trespasses2

in the eddies of the water

where we first walked.



1. the part of a turtle’s shell that forms the underside

2. trespasses is a synonym for sins; lines 26-27 allude to a Christian prayer that includes the line “forgive us our trespasses”

Answer 1

Red-black