SUNDAY POETRY: "THE LOBSTER"

(Photo by Leslie Ricker, at the Lobster Institute.)

THE LOBSTER

by Carl Rakosi

Eastern Sea, 100 fathoms,   

green sand, pebbles,   

broken shells.

Off Suno Saki, 60 fathoms,   

gray sand, pebbles,   

bubbles rising.

Plasma-bearer   

and slow-

motion benthos!

The fishery vessel Ion

drops anchor here

                           collecting   

plankton smears and fauna.

Plasma-bearer, visible

sea purge,

                sponge and kelpleaf.   

Halicystus the Sea Bottle

resembles emeralds   

and is the largest   

cell in the world.

Young sea horse   

Hippocampus twenty   

minutes old,

nobody has ever   

seen this marine   

freak blink.

It radiates on   

terminal vertebra   

a comb of twenty

upright spines   

and curls   

its rocky tail.

Saltflush lobster   

bull encrusted swims

backwards from the rock.

(Slipper Lobster larva. Photo by Peter Parks. From the Australian Museum.)