how sweet the dark which hides me;
the brine that filters through;
the softness of the sand.
I cling - am singing - bivalve songs
my gills alight with blood.
hanging by a byssal thread in wait,
for what? indeed.
nutrition filters through my shell
- the tastes of distant loves -
I hunker down, secreting possibilities
that I can not see, of distant dreams.
the universe within my nerves expands,
too vast to be contained.
it explodes beyond myself;
no mantle can frame it.
it flows from me - this longing.
a remembrance of moments,
of chemicals in current.
every tear a life unlived.
each drop a thought potential.
the tides within establish norms which permeate
- instigate -
the turnings of this realm,
bringing forth the hardened form of signals I've rebound:
"I'm here! Hello?"
"Me too, me too!"
we echo through the seas,
anticipating textures on the tides.
our swirling minds reflect within,
entombing us with times.
we live inside our memories.
no past, no future, it all is now,
now, and now, and all around:
it's all we see.
and then...
we live again,
mirrored by the things we've grown around us.
from birth. through life.
we scrape, then die again, again.
all at once and forever, we thrive and fall,
encapsulated in our hemispheres which turn
and twist
and spin.
a spiral forms;
projects the pattern of our dreams without.
each sensation painted in the layers we wear
until it shines.
and see how it shines!
the pales and pinks and silvers shift,
revolve within themselves to show
our deepest fears
our brightest joys
as rainbows, smooth and silken.
if they could only know the truth:
that our beauty's accidental;
coincidental.
that we would shed our skins to swim,
settle quick into the plains
aside our lovers sending signals with the swell.
but now, we wait.
for what? indeed.
blind, deaf, locked away.
here, at the bottom of the world
I drift again through images of being.
I can not say which have gone,
which have not yet come.
another turn in the spiral is cast
- another layer hardens -
and I remain,
clench my shell and think:
how sweet the dark.
Life in a shell.