[lit-ideas] Re: Saturday Poem
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 12:25:38 -0700
Tough Choice, From A Field Guide to Seashore Life
You=B9ll maybe remember a Guinness competition,
the winner won a pub?
Well I=B9ve been thinking,
what I=B9d name it if I did.
=20
My own ideal pub is perched on a cliff,
a good windy walk away from life,
so I=B9d be thinking something wet or whistley,
something with a sense of sea,
something slithery even,
like whisky
or a whelk.
=20
How well real tidal dwellers' names sound.
Open a field guide and try the sculpins :
grunt, rosylip, tidepool, saddleback, mosshead and fluffy,
a full Beatrix Potter litter of fish
waiting for their own heart-warming tale.
=20
Deeper into the guide, I imagine the following,
swinging on a sign behind the wind:
The Rough-Mantled Doris
The Boring Sponge
The Fingered Limpit
The Tinted Wentletrap
=20
I consider,
The Dusky Tegula
The Gumboot Chiton
The Emarginate Dogwinkle
The Black Prickleback
=20
I flirt with,
The Nail Brush
The Bent-Nosed Macoma
The Hairy Mopalia
The Opalescent Nudibranch
=20
Then I try,
The Tucked Lirularia
The Blenny Eel
The Sea Pork
Vosnesenty=B9s Isopod
=20
Finally it comes down to,
=B3Nuttall=B9s Cockle=B2 or =B3The Dire Welk.=B2
Would anyone, I wonder, walk a way to a welk?
Even if I made mussels?
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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