A Green Crab's Shell

    closer to bronze

    preserved in kind brine，

    something retrieved

    from a Greco-Roman wreck，

    patinated and oddly

    muscular. We cannot

    know what his fantastic

    legs were like——

    though evidence

    suggests eight

    complexly folded

    scuttling works

    of armament， crowned

    by the foreclaws'

    gesture of menace

    and power. A gull's

    gobbled the center，

    leaving this chamber

    ——size of a demitasse——

    open to reveal

    a shocking， Giotto blue.

    Though it smells

    of seaweed and ruin，

    this little traveling case

    comes with such lavish lining！

    Imagine breathing

    surrounded by

    the brilliant rinse

    of summer's firmament.

    What color is

    the underside of skin？

    Not so bad， to die，

    if we could be opened

    into this——

    if the smallest chambers

    of ourselves，

    similarly，

    revealed some sky.