A Green Crab's Shell

    closer to bronze

    preserved in kind brine，

    something retrieved¹

    from a Greco-Roman wreck²，

    patinated³ and oddly

    muscular. We cannot

    know what his fantastic

    legs were like——

    though evidence

    suggests eight

    complexly folded

    scuttling⁴ works

    of armament， crowned

    by the foreclaws'

    gesture of menace

    and power. A gull's

    gobbled the center，

    leaving this chamber⁵

    ——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 lavish⁶ lining⁷！

    Imagine breathing

    surrounded by

    the brilliant rinse⁸

    of summer's firmament⁹.

    What color is

    the underside of skin？

    Not so bad， to die，

    if we could be opened

    into this——

    if the smallest chambers¹⁰

    of ourselves，

    similarly，

    revealed some sky.