remember that desolate beach
inhabited by strange crustaceans
washed away by surging foam
only to come sidling back
those red armored creations of claws
and stalks of eyes
enacting their curious uprisings
in claims over the meager remains
of more complex forms of life
their odd intrigues
beneath meandering boughs of a great tree
that one wide limb where we would lay
weary from swimming
sharing our last mango
tossing its skin into the fray
that glistening fisherman
scattering every crawling creature away
his fish of many colors speared
which in that night’s dark downpour
we roasted over fire
waves in the distance
breaking and hissing
upon that shore of crabs
