Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2005

Sequences in the Evolution of Form

by Jennifer Crow

 

one-celled romance
ultimate self-love
divides
and conquers

slick, thick-shelled
bottom feeders
scrape carapace
and tangle
their offspring’s future

swayed by the tides
streamlined swarms
school and copulate under
a nearer moon

heavy-legged things
struggle out of the ocean’s mirror
to dance on strange shores
and brood in the shallows
with a multitude of spawn

a dusting of pollen
spreads passion’s fruits
on the wind

wild wings spin
mid-air tapestries
of lust
into the perfect egg

slinking in shadow
warm blood whispers
of wombs and futures

and you
and I
fur-clad
balance all these pasts
like whirling plates
a billion years and more
of change
brush each other
skin to skin

__________

Shy and nocturnal, Jennifer Crow has never been photographed in the wild. However, you can catch up with her work in recent issues of Mythic Delirium, Star*Line, Strange Horizons and the Magazine of Speculative Poetry

 

Copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted.

 

Art Director: Bonnie Brunish

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