Lovely Penguin

I like this poem because it has a lot of layers.  It deals with femininity and violence mostly; of course, that is, as much as mussels and otters can….

The Mussel
By Marie Gordon

There’s nothing left here
No soft little button
No little pink body
I’m left just a clam

Once bubbly mussel
In a barnacle playground
Breathing little shell puffs
Popping the surface

Until furry claws
Saw my bubbles arise
And pried my shell open
Rip, rip, stealing me

The shiny pink bulb
Savored no more than fish
With peppered barnacle
Nails split me open

Black on pink on black
Ripped tendons don’t survive
The tears of claws that pry
My body from me

Oh to a be a fish
Or a slimy sea snake
To be more than still black
Pried open to taste

A vacant black shell
Left tasteless on the rocks
A black little hollowed
Swimming skeleton

I’m not sure why I keep writing about sea creatures.  I suppose I must relate to them in some bizarre way… Either way, I hope you enjoy my poem about the minnow

Minnow dance
By R. Marie Gordon

I am just a minnow
Sometimes my fins wobble
When the whitecaps catch me
Salty glittering stripes
Flicker under the froth
Darting to catch a breath
Dodging pelican swoops
I do this dance for me
I swoosh and swerve and swim
My gills puffing bubbles
Into the glossy seas
Swallowing me in blue
A silver swimming speck
Miniature fins pumping
Against enormous swells
A flying dart winking
At the sea gulls glaring
Dipping under buoys
Evading feathered bombs
Swerving minnow fins blink
A glittery shadow
A sweeping box step swish
Which pauses as the tide recedes
To remember her only line:
I do this dance for me