in the vein of Marianne Moore

Sharks have a covering of dermal dentricals

that protect their skin from damage and parasites and

improve fluid dynamics. Fluid,

their movements, through pools of ocean dew

standing still on sea plants- plants that are really animals

with murky names like zooxanthellae,

which “live inside the

translucent fleshy tissue of many marine animals

including types of giant clams, nudibranchs and even jellyfish,”

and which, for this, are considered to be

parasites.

“For that matter, I’d call a baby a parasite,”

he said, referring to the fusion of gametes

to produce a new organism-

an organism which grows in-

side the “translucent fleshy tissue” of mommies

for many months,

only to plop out one day, slimy and red-

a perturbed little body that screams

hello to the world.

“You have been deceived into thinking that you have progressed,”

into the world of man, into the world of morals and dignity-

but we who hail from the family hominidae,

we who call ourselves

Homo Sapiens are, really, just bipedal primates-

zooxanthellae with lungs.

-Julia Kennelly