Judi Benson
What the Oyster Said
I will die in your mouth, my tiny heart pulsating, blue blood
a briny liquid, my powerful adductor muscle
swimming my oesophagus down yours. If you’re lucky.
If you can find me in the first place, prise me loose
from the boot, the bottle, the rock I cling to.
If a starfish doesn’t get me first or the boring sponge,
time and tide, those things. Not to mention you
knowing just where to put the prick of your knife,
how to ease my taut hinges open to the soft inside, lustrous nacre.
You will sigh as I die, and whisper all the names I call myself,
male or female, I can be both and back again. Oyster, ostrea virginica,
o.adriatica, o. conchophilia, o.lurida, o. cucullatta, o. gigas, o. lutaria.
My folds will be frilled, my stomach filled with diatoms
in their classy cases, a prism of light in the dark of the deep.
a briny liquid, my powerful adductor muscle
swimming my oesophagus down yours. If you’re lucky.
If you can find me in the first place, prise me loose
from the boot, the bottle, the rock I cling to.
If a starfish doesn’t get me first or the boring sponge,
time and tide, those things. Not to mention you
knowing just where to put the prick of your knife,
how to ease my taut hinges open to the soft inside, lustrous nacre.
You will sigh as I die, and whisper all the names I call myself,
male or female, I can be both and back again. Oyster, ostrea virginica,
o.adriatica, o. conchophilia, o.lurida, o. cucullatta, o. gigas, o. lutaria.
My folds will be frilled, my stomach filled with diatoms
in their classy cases, a prism of light in the dark of the deep.
Page(s) 7
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