How to Conquer
       

The jellyfish have been multiplying
unchecked, their belled bodies

the perfect model for how to conquer.
We once assumed that animals evolve

from simple to complex, that everything
has a stable point they are always striving

to reach, like the planet is awarding trophies
for most improved, most complicated

nervous system, the brain's gray matter
and its million rooms molded and stacked

into curves and ridges. But jellyfish are older
than the leaves giving us oxygen—

they did not bother to grow limbs
or stable centers. Each little buoy

is an alarm, a gorgeous light spinner,
and who can blame them for their automated

desire to live, to bloom into their kingdom
fit for prehistory, all feeling,

leaving barely a record of their lives.

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Copyright © 2021 Alyse Bensel All rights reserved
from Southern Indiana Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission