The Mantis Shrimp

Like as the wind creates waves on the salty sea,

Making them evolve new shapes to no easy end;

So does nature create my laudable legacy,

In frequent toil must we crustaceans contend.

The strike of my smasher, my deadly delight,

Faster than a bullet, wherewith cogently crowned;

The king of punches, peak of nature’s magistral might,

Hotter than the surface of the sun, I doth, with awe, astound.

Still, I must find a challenge! Raving my savage soul,

I venture to the surface, hereby finding a seaside settlement;

I find big baffling bipeds, and I must question my ranking role,

As the king of nature. For they can kick me around, those evil elephants!

Now I must question my waning, whittling, worth,

As I see them with baskets, full of the brothers and sisters of mad me;

Am I no longer the pinnacle of Mother, grand ole’ Earnest-Earth?

Egad! These powerful creatures of the land show no pain/pity.

But how you--must I stop so to terribly think!

How you treat us like the dirt in your sandy sandals;

How you eat us ‘till extinction’s blooming brink,

How you cheat our punches into shameful shambles.

But then! A spark! Something I’ve never before suitably seen,

A man and a woman smiling, holding a newfound newborn;

Staring in each other’s eyes, as if something there was beyond between,

A force no other creature can copy, so it seems. Admirable and adorned.

And now, as I return to the sea, I think thoughtfully…

Of an animal’s place in this world’s steadfast stream;

I will respect these gods I have met, tearfully, truthfully,

For the world, in times of eld, where we wildlife reigned supreme--

is now nothing but a deserted dream.

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