Carboniferous Cycling
Carboniferous Cycling
Two algae-decorated domes,
black and tan marbled armour,
bobbing between crevasse of chalky basalt.
Flippers paddle aboard whitewash,
and push vertically,
to assume their opportunistic chomping positions.
Beaks snap onto billowy scarves of sea lettuce and grass.
The pair munches away,
oblivious to barrels rolling them over.
Once again,
exposing their variegated carapace.
Fused vertebrae navigate razor protrusions in rock,
scutes shed and renew battered layers of keratin into the aqueous mixture.
Sudden thrusts provide inertia needed,
to access the narrowest of crevasse,
unveiling verdant patches of photosynthetic algae.
Synchronous bobbing, surfacing,
intermittent gulping between chomping and swallowing.
Together they dot an axis,
forming a sinusoidal best-fit line.
Two beady-black eyes catch me staring down from a crumbling cliff.
The green giant is unbothered,
and refocuses on the forage.
He rejoins his partner,
whose attention is deep,
in a luscious rock-dangling salad.
Light flickers and dances on myriad wave forms,
water swirls around this breezy pair.
Morning lapses into afternoon,
night into morning.
They bob together,
shadows grow and stretch,
becoming diffuse.
Matter separating,
particulating,
and reassociating.
Reuniting,
once again.