EELS
Yes you see us
sliding serpentine
in currents
see us
slither
glistening over rocks
Do we snipe at buttocks
snap up pensile extremities?
Yes, if you say so:
we splendidly sustain our myths
and seed your lasting soughdreams;
the slate black worm that spits
the unseen snake
the stream’s suspended
spectrestick that stirs
snagteeth set to strike
Yes, we swim from deepsea elver troughs
questing instinct assailing distance.
Sly memory is our covenant.
We slink under surfaces
scan each stretch of stream
reminisce through slimeslick hollows
stabbing sprawling nets of roots
and soft escaping things
with questing snouts
We are slickshimmer fins
swivel eyes and slowly smiling jaws
a glissade
a susurration
Yes, we consume what you seek,
and each seeker is just
but we surpass your hunters
and so survive
Yes, so we are; shadows under sunlight
rivers’ sibilant undulations
wavelengths’ siren songs
ripples’ echoes
the suck
of silence
© Dael Allison
Published
in New England Review Winter 2005