written By
there is a tank of giant sea crabs
the largest arthropod in the world
that lives 2,000 feet below the sea
devouring collapsed whale fall
and I saw online somewhere very far
away they discovered three new
species of ookie gloopy creatures
and despite the belugas next door,
named Yulka and Kula and Miranda,
I stare mouth agape at the crustaceans
that don’t belong and think to myself:
I want to be a new type of needlefish
with a crooked smile and goofy eyes
you’ve never seen before; a bumpy
snailfish that lives so down you marvel,
“How can he handle the pressure?”
of the unplumbed black depths of darkness.
I want to be the fragile, thin-skinned
creature of the deep you can’t find
but you get to discover and name me
in latin but cannot be tank contained
for tourists to see; I am too soft to thrive
without the pressure.
