octopus myth
1.
most intelligent & behaviorally flexible
of invertebrates, apparently you’ve evolved past the point
of needing a skeleton, funny how in our world
that just makes you mush
2.
you taste everything you touch, which is maybe
too straight forward a way of being, all that salt
has to age your brain, it’s what gave you 3 hearts
& a soft body that can turn anonymous
3.
they’re calling you a reflex because you have no
mental image of the shapes you handle & must rely
on texture variations, they’ve proven you have no
neurological path to the big picture
4.
sometimes you change color to communicate
but you can also use the muscles in your skin
to change the texture of your mantle for even
greater camouflage
5.
& you’re not above detaching a tentacle
to distract a predator, romantic for something
that doesn’t know if it’s stretched or not
without its tension sensors
6.
you swim by pushing water out of your
contractile mantle because you’re doomed
(or blessed) to never understand the complexity
of your own motions
7.
your myth says the present cosmos
is but the blossomed wreckage of the
one before and that you are
its sole survivor
8.
you’ll die shortly after mating
but not until she lays you
200,000 eggs
Peter Schwartz's words have appeared in Pank, Wigleaf, and Opium. See more at www.sitrahahra.com.
Photography by Eleanor Leonne Bennett
No comments:
Post a Comment