Eels

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