Ocean Cradle

Late last night I dared descend
Liquid halls to apprehend--
Born in deepest ocean cradle--
Life forms served from the Maker’s ladle.

I dreamed of strange frames in  their retreat:
Starfish was fingers that walked like feet,
the Octopi’s feet --with head and eyes,
Coral walls--  built when polyps die.

Seahorse was a head astride a tail,
Saw a slithery eel, the sluggish snail,
And schools of  fish in every color
That drifted currents or dove for cover .

Saw swimming free,  a fat manatee.
And stuck on a rock,  the anemone.
Half of  ‘cuda was a  toothy jaw,
But scariest was  a shark’s  bloody maw.
                                   
Crabs walked sideways where  tides seeped,
While albacore explored the deep.
Sea caves and shells held  lazy mollusks.
Even saw kelp’s  undulating forests.

I glimpsed a world rarely seen--
Filled  with  curiosities--
But lacking gills,  I did surmise:
Fish  yet remained  unseen by eyes.

first published in Poets of The Vineyard

also published in Poet’s Pen