Patellogastropoda
Limpets cling to the surface - a cliff, the shore, whale-fall:
the slowly rotting carcass fallen down to the ocean floor.
Once there was a heart and lungs and eyes and more, but now,
2000 metres below sea level the skeleton houses whole ecosystems
and still the limpet won’t let it go.
Limpets will seal themselves shut against the rock
Nothing can get through to it. Drowning in the sunlight,
still, the limpet is impervious, its shell solid wrapped around it,
digging its foot into the ground.
A limpet will let itself be destroyed before it lets go.
Limpets are a delicacy in some cultures.
But - poisonous before they die -
You will eat me alive.
I cannot let go.
the slowly rotting carcass fallen down to the ocean floor.
Once there was a heart and lungs and eyes and more, but now,
2000 metres below sea level the skeleton houses whole ecosystems
and still the limpet won’t let it go.
Limpets will seal themselves shut against the rock
Nothing can get through to it. Drowning in the sunlight,
still, the limpet is impervious, its shell solid wrapped around it,
digging its foot into the ground.
A limpet will let itself be destroyed before it lets go.
Limpets are a delicacy in some cultures.
But - poisonous before they die -
You will eat me alive.
I cannot let go.