In Praise of the Jellyfish
By Lucille Lang Day, Oakland, CA
Grand Prize, Dancing Poetry Festival, 2008
Let us celebrate
the siphonophore, with its tiny
gas-filled float atop
a cluster of swimming bells
forming a column
like blossoms of foxglove;
The by-the-wind sailor,
a bright blue disk gliding
on the sea’s surface,
its single triangular sail held
high to capture the breeze;
the cannonball jelly
whose pure white rigid bowl
could be a pulsing
death cap mushroom.
Let us gasp in rapture at
the ctenophore with delicate lobes
that flap to fly through water
and the one with rows
of combs that refract light,
giving off rainbows
as they beat in unison;
the sea gooseberry,
spinning in bunches--
spherical glass ornaments
on invisible trees, each
trailing two fringed
tentacles with gluey tips;
the moon jelly, a celestial
body that dropped
into the sea, contracting
its shining umbrella to propel
itself through the waves.
Let us be dazzled
by beauty and danger--
creatures all crystal and silk
clueless as tulips,
drifting along like
our unconscious selves.
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