Ode to a Jellyfish

Ode to a Jellyfish 

I was stung by your beauty today,

Ardour and ache so hard to convey,

Traps focused to invisible shrill,

Left stopped shaky stunned wonderstruck still.

A rose's thorn bites with its pressure,

No life exchanged with feel inside her,

But you, adrift, Brownian at sea,

Mingled a wave from your soul with me,

A toxic quiver 'leased in my veins,

With more blitzlieb than Cupid's best pains.

I shall ever aftertaste that fruit,

Forbidden me, this clay plodding brute.

Such passion, even before my eyes,

Spied perfections of form make their rise.

Your sphere. Osmotic. Undulant. Pure.

Blue angelwing glow, ascendent lure,

Lemniscate patterns traced 'cross your top,

Distractive grace of tentacles drop.

Injured, I should have swum for the beach,

But all, I confess, longed deeper reach.

Would I trade away a life for this?

One parlous tryst? One undersea kiss?

Aether's flesh charge up me become you,

Feed me your venom, philter and dew,

Come love me in poison that livens,

Come drown me in potion that drunkens.

When lovers love, with eyes the eyes gaze.

A touch touches touch, as two skins graze.

To smell one other's smell, nose rubs nose.

To taste all that tastes, another kiss flows.

But while I float with your drifts'n hovers,

We're giv'n no chance to tread as lovers,

Eons have left us no sense we share,

No kiss, no caress, no word, no stare.

Oh, to've met you on earlier sand,

'Fore mammals betrayed water for land,

Epochs where such a love might carry,

Embraced in lost time's station'ry tarry...

No such strand, alas, hath destiny,

To rend me from Land and you from Sea.

Still, I'll build castles of sand, and more,

Kingdoms for you! I wait on the shore.

James Clarage; Beachhouse; Crystal Beach, Texas; August 30, 1992.

clarage@rice.edu