Lobster Under Harbor | By J. Samuel Thacher

A yachty harbor lobster

On a sea-smooth stone.

Translucent underbelly undulating.

Little scuttles and sand flea specks

Moving quick under tail.

Sea grass decomposition,

Of dark green-black sea grass

And blotchy leprous grain.

A feast for little sea grass creatures

To fatten them up and be food

To larger creatures, that feast

On little sea grass eating creatures.

And the waves lap and move,

And they keep lapping and moving,

Ebbing and flowing, and foaming,

And spurting, and splashing, and bashing

Against big, jagged rocks full of

Sea lichen-clamshells and barnacles

Hanging on tight to the jagged rocks.

And the rocks just sit there

All fat and spectacular in their stubborn

Stillness there, with the lichen all stuck

And slowly growing to cover the whole

Jagged rock face with its ruffled brow,

And big fat jagged rock belly.

Then there's worm country

In the lower forty,

during a good wet wormy day.

All the grubby worms, worm themselves

To the surface and move themselves

Around all wild and worthy

In their worm-dance.

They dance for the rain,

And thank the sky, and writhe around,

And move about their little wormy bodies

In the mucky mud-covered crabgrass.

And the seagulls circle,

Screeching with their gull bellies hungry,

And gurgling and wanting for worms.

They screech their siren seagull sound,

And scream, "Worms, worms, worms, worms"

And the worms just keep on dancing.

And a rowdy robin comes thumping up

And gobbles one good worm up.

Gobbles the good worm

Right down it's robin throat.

And the robin stares

blankly at the big blue sky,

Where clouds no longer obscure

The sunshine there.

Where the rain moved away,

And the clouds turned white-fluffy

And began to flow like the water flowed

In the yachty harbor bay down there.

Where the big rock just sits,

All fat and still, with its big, ruffled brow.

Where the lobster scuttles backwards into

The foamy sea,

And the little sea grass creatures

Get eaten, and eat,

And the whole big thing

Just keeps on ebbing and flowing.

Ebbing and flowing.