The slow clock whorls of snailsmark time here; such calendarspatterned earlier dark oozeinto reluctant longitudes.
Fluted they give lipserviceover sand and slime,dance, hornbranchingone-footed sineimpervious
while molly and platy(bread-and-butter names)nip-nap-nubble the grown scrollsof snailshell, gossip the green.
Behind the screenof glass I watch,scrape algae, doledry crumbs of food into the gapeof tiger-striped predators,a blaze of jaws untoothed
still showing in memory of the warmerAmazon (a lunge and seetheof living waters) the red raw gorge.
Beyond these elegant admirationsin the pale fishwarmth of antichlorined watersfrilly snails paceporing glissandos sucklockedto glass, timeless, the protozoan'srelentless ungrace.
