Grant Rejected. Coral Doesn't Wait.

grant rejected for the third time. reviewer said sample size. sample size costs boats. boats cost money. money costs grants. coral bleaching doesn't read peer review. we dive anyway with borrowed equipment and stubbornness. lab freezer hummed while reviewers asked for more rigor on less budget. science is argument with nature and accountants simultaneously. i ate a sandwich over a spreadsheet and called it lunch. the coral polyp photo on my screen looked impossibly patient. sample tubes labeled until handwriting blurred. boat fuel costs more than my optimism some weeks. the reef does not care about grant cycles. we dove because the data gap is also a moral gap. salt dried on my neck like evidence i was there. lab freezer hummed while reviewers asked for more rigor on less budget. science is argument with nature and accountants simultaneously. i ate a sandwich over a spreadsheet and called it lunch. the coral polyp photo on my screen looked impossibly patient.