| Eulogy for a Hermit Crab By Pattiann Rogers |
| You were consistently brave On these surf-drenched rocks, in and out of their salty Slough holes around which the entire expanse Of the glinting grey sea and the single spotlight Of the sun went spinning and spinning and spinning In a tangle of blinding spume and spray And pistol-shot collisions your whole life long. You stayed. Even with the wet icy wind of the moon Circling your silver care night after night after night You were here. And by the gritty orange curve of your claws, By the soft, wormlike grip Of your hinter body, by the unrelieved wonder Of your black-pea eyes, by the mystified swing And swing and swing of your touching antennae, You maintained your name meticulously, you kept Your name intact exactly, day after day after day. No one could say you were less than perfect In the hermitage of your crabness. Now, beside the racing, incomprehensible racket Of the sea stretching its great girth forever Back and forth between this direction and another, Please let the words of this proper praise I speak Become the identical and proper sound Of my mourning. |