Slack-Jawed Tide

by tfawcus

Silver still the sea tonight,
a luminescent, viscous thing
of listless lull,
and solipsistic slop
and murmuring,
that softly sucks the life from hidden holes
where monsters lurk and wild imaginings
drift dead men in to shore
on slack-jawed tides
and drag them out again,
where gormless hagfish swirl and swim
beneath the dark viridian
of clinging kelp and bottle-blue Physalia,
whose lethal droop of tentacles
hangs low
to drift,
and
s
t
i
n
g

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Glossary
Viscous: with a seemingly oily consistency
Solipsistic: self-absorbed
Viridian: blue-green
Physalia: The Portuguese man-o'-war or blue bottle, a jellyfish-like marine organism whose tentacles deliver a painful and sometimes fatal sting. They are found in great numbers at certain times of the year, off the east coast of Australia.

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Slack-Jawed Tide

by tfawcus

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