limpets and barnacles

On the discovery that limpets and barnacles are not remotely related except in the sense that they are both alive and live on rocks

Among the samphire and the wrack

For we are of the tribe of Ammonite

We travelled here across the sands

But pitch our tents on solid rock

Between the tides - and with our glands

We make them calcareous and strong

And proof against the world and those who’d wish us harm

Snugly we nestle in our nook

Attached by neck or stomach/foot - or what you will²

² Strength dwells in his neck,

And ⁷sorrow dances before him.

Like cattle of the rockpool , now we slowly graze

On the promised meadows of green slime

Inside the tent we have a secret spiral you will never see

Salute us - cousins of the octopus are we

 we toil among the vineyards of the damned

But we are righteous in thy sight - we have no dread

For here we dwell

²³ The folds of his flesh are joined together;

They are firm on him and cannot be moved.

The great waves crash against our tents

There is no tempest that can move us

No storm can shake our hold

⁶ One is so near another

That no air can come between them;

¹⁷ They are joined one to another,

They stick together and cannot be parted.

Hush - I am a stranger here

Or was - now in an unrelated flock

Of those like me who chose this rock

And put our foreheads down and stuck

Between the tides -

We were backpackers of the seas

Our people are the bumble bees

And butterflies and crabs and shrimps

And out-shelled things with jointed knees

We settled here and built a colony

And build our calcareous tents around

To shield and keep us from all harm

I don’t think we will move again

Why should we ? we do love this rock

And after all - its not as if we could

Our legs have now turned into nets

We catch our food -We don’t need much

And we are small and steadfast in our homes

Stuck by our foreheads with cement

Among the samphire and the wrack

 Who can open the doors of his face,

With his terrible teeth all around?

 His rows of ⁶scales are his pride,

Shut up tightly as with a seal;

¹,

Anita Greg  October , 2018