The King Crab ruled from high
in his sandcastle
until one day, troubled,
shod his seahorse
with horseshoe crabs
and, with a brace of pistol shrimp,
rode away from his kingdom
into the enchanted
kelp forest
where he stumbled on
a crabapple hermit crab apple crab
who had visions and told tales
of a higher land
of warrior mantis monks
rescuing pretty maids
from dragonflies,
of sailfish sailors
who discover that the shore
is just the sleep crust on the ocean
which is, itself, an eye.
The hermit said, “Your ornamental
gardens, livestock, patterns
in the clouds,
we attack the world with a putty knife,
forming it in our own image,
at least into the mold
of our brains.â€
The ocean, blinking, eroded
the sandcastle away like every metaphor
under tides of indifference.
illustration, A Crab Lying on his Back, by Van Gogh
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