Diane Hine - Ode to a Vampire Squid

Oh relic, from a wayward deep sea branch
The octopi and squid have passed you by
Kaleidoscopic cousins who perchance
Have left you sinking, reticent and shy
Cool eyes are saucered opals, milky hued
A powder blue afloat in talc soft skin
A death slow pulse evokes hypnotic mood
Diaphanous slit gills draw water in

A dark intruder looming, swift and lithe
Flip inside out, concealed in fluted purse
With jellied cirri, white on black, you writhe
From tips, blue neon fusillade disperse
Intruder lunges, misses, glides away
Unpeel, dilate your luminescent cape
Unfolded, fine twinned filaments sashay
As lucent ribbon cast from membrane drape

At this great depth, free oxygen is scant
Yet you, blue-blooded master of the glean
Now flaunt archaic inner light extant
Bright flashes strobe with phosphorescent sheen
With languid flaps, you cautiously advance
Warm eyes, aglow with blend of rose and frost
Do you, withdrawn beauty, seek to dance?
With I, a winsome lonely copepod lost.

Diane Hine

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