The Octopi Jars

The Octopi Jars
by Michael R. Burch

Long-vacant eyes

now lodged in clear glass,

a-swim with pale arms

as delicate as angels’ . . .

you are beyond all hope

of salvage now . . .

and yet I would pause,

no fear!,

to once touch

your arcane beaks . . .

I, more alien than you

to this imprismed world,

notice, most of all,

the scratches on the inside surfaces

of your hermetic cells  . . .

and I remember documentaries

of albino Houdinis

slipping like wraiths

over the walls of shipboard aquariums,

slipping down decks’ 

brine-lubricated planks,

spilling jubilantly into the dark sea,

parachuting through clouds of pallid ammonia . . .

and I know now in life you were unlike me:

your imprisonment was never voluntary.

Originally published by Triplopia and The Poetic Musings of Sam Hudson. Keywords/Tags: Octopus, Octopi, Medusa, Sea Angel, Angel, Angels, Nature, Sea, Ocean, Aquarium, Aliens, Imprisonment, Prison, Ship, Ships, Shipwreck