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Today's poem is by Ann A. Philips

The Octopus Diaries
       

Little udder body, half dead. 5 buck from the raw bar. Brought it home
in a jar.

too bright
slick cave
no dark
bad water

Soft as balls. Didn't die. Big eyes.

get out get out
get out no out

Bought a saltwater tank. Oxygen, pH, temperature, motors, the works.

big cave
good water
pincher food
eat

It ate the crab, turned orange. Touches everything in the tank.

hard shapes not food
feel
push
twist
twist
look under

It remembered where I hid the oysters yesterday. Went there first.

Shell food again
eat
push big rock
air above
surf squirt
hide under rock
tide go out

He disassembled the recycling valves. Ninety gallons of water all over the
living room.

storm
not storm smell
waves
no pincher food

I moved the whole tank to the bathroom. Added shingle pieces. He made
a shelter.

make cave
eat pincher food
eat shell food

He escaped. Squeezed under the bathroom door? Found him under my bed.

lift rock
go out
fall
go
no opening no opening
no opening
opening
feel under
air same
go under
dark caves
hide in big one
no food
too dry

He wraps around my wrist. I put in a couple toys. Needs a real saltwater
pool. I could get 200K for the house. Enough for a beach shack.
Winterize it.

same cave
new shapes
throw
floats up bubbles
catch
throw
eel creature again
same smell
no beak
soft and hard like fish
touch like female
hold on



Copyright © 2018 Ann A. Philips All rights reserved
from A Language the Land is Inventing
WordTech Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

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