Common Stingray
Dasyatis pastinaca
In the infinite silence
of her velvety skin, she roams
through moon water at night,scours coastal shallows, glides
around the Mediterranean,
Norway, Canary Islands—fluid creature soaring,
foraging chink snails,
snapper biscuits,spiny shrimp, undulating
in and out of waves.
She is a wave—primordial, flexing spine
and filament, overlapping,
ruffling her flexible body—a pectoral fin disk, graceful
as gull wings in watery air.
Diamond-shaped,she resembles a stealth fighter,
almost alien, yet magical—
all flesh, fiber, cartilage,onyx eyes peering through
sand when she buries
herself in sediment,becomes indiscernible.
Her disguise, expert
as a hairy crab,or peacock flounder creeping
on fins. If only we could read
the mysteries she writes in liquid
cursive with her long whip tail.
Featured image: Stingray by Klobetime on flickr.com. CC license.
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