Oh relic, from a wayward deep sea branch <br />The octopi and squid have passed you by <br />Kaleidoscopic cousins who perchance <br />Have left you sinking, reticent and shy <br />Cool eyes are saucered opals, milky hued <br />A powder blue afloat in talc soft skin <br />A death slow pulse evokes hypnotic mood <br />Diaphanous slit gills draw water in <br /> <br />A dark intruder looming, swift and lithe <br />Flip inside out, concealed in fluted purse <br />With jellied cirri, white on black, you writhe <br />From tips, blue neon fusillade disperse <br />Intruder lunges, misses, glides away <br />Unpeel, dilate your luminescent cape <br />Unfolded, fine twinned filaments sashay <br />As lucent ribbon cast from membrane drape <br /> <br />At this great depth, free oxygen is scant <br />Yet you, blue-blooded master of the glean <br />Now flaunt archaic inner light extant <br />Bright flashes strobe with phosphorescent sheen <br />With languid flaps, you cautiously advance <br />Warm eyes, aglow with blend of rose and frost <br />Do you, withdrawn beauty, seek to dance? <br />With I, a winsome lonely copepod lost.<br /><br />Diane Hine<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-a-vampire-squid/
