Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Unlike the univalve trochus, a snail which inhabits the surfaces
of the ocean bed, the penis resides above water and is partial to
moist man made fibres or cotton fabric woven with same, feeding
exclusively from the warmth of the swaddling. On occasion they
move forward, downward and peek out of same when not lightly
glued to it with their whole bodies. The vast majority of them
exude warm liquid which passes through them muscularly at a
rapid rate, a maximum volume of two quarts has been recorded in
some areas.

The univalve’s average length is 5 3/4 inches by a diameter of
approximately 2 inches. The maximum length sighted to date is
recorded as 16 inches by a diameter of 4 inches, however, uni -
valves of this size are extremely rare. Its tonal quality is that
of raw meat and is for the most part passive, even docile by
nature, a dowsing of water will quell its active element. The
stimulatory power or glandular nourishment is usually pre-suggestive
by nature; without sight in itself, its extendability is closely
linked to the bi-ped male parasite to which it is attached via the
nervous system during the length of its functional life.

When frightened the cat usually arches its back and raises its
hair in alarm, a response directly to do with the feline’s wish
to appear as large as possible, a defensive mechanism in the face
of impending danger. The univalve penis reacts directly to another
foe, the mammary tip and/or the beaver-scruff, a land going
jellyfish, or direct descendent of the Portugese-Man-Of-War, which
is by function similar in nature, but differs correspondingly by
the fact that it is closely linked to the bi-ped female parasite,
to which it is attached, via the nervous system during the length
of its functional life.

The dormant univalve, either in its protective covering or its
defenseless nakedness reacts in the following manner. The muscles
tighten, the animal stretches to considerable length, sometimes
five times its passive size, raises its sonar head, or blind spot,
and rests itself like a fully nourished worm against the belly of
its parasite in vertical aspect or vulnerable form.

The obvious explanation for this reaction is that like trees and
shrubs that grow avoiding the most densely shaded surroundings,
the univalve by climbing meritously is avoiding any action on the
parasite’s part to shield it from the sun’s health-giving rays.

This is in fact the opposite motive for the penis’s reaction. The
penis by making this pneumatic movement seeks the sanctuary of a
deep damp hollow manifest at a precise location, inside the star
fish of the female parasite, and made evident by the appearance of
a faucet similar in shape to the mantle and sensitive tentacles
along the opening edges of the scallop, a bi-valve’s differing only
by the rows of blue eyes it uses to navigate the ocean floor.

Once inside this comfortable pocket of protective armour, its
expressive anger is hidden in contempt of itself, anger in the form
of a tracery of signals which echo-sound the parasite’s body. These
sensory messages increase gradually in amplitude until an apex is reached whereupon a flocculent convulsion occurs with the outflow,
or rapid secretions of drivel accompanied usually by like responsive
fluids from the female attached animal, an abundance of viscous
pride which shines when dry, thus reassuring itself and impressing
the earth more richly, more silvery with its species.