Siphonophore

Siphonophore

Galaxies of you in the wine-dark
web of life – tell me true –
are you Nereid hair, tangled
up with sailor’s stars, a Calypso
magic trick hidden in the wine-dark sea?

What secrets in your weave,
your spill of sea-bobbin,
your collective Borg of
carrying – is your initiation
hazing that which wraps
around our feet?

Spiral of willful ramen, are
we to fear the casting of your lines,
sunk and drifting, like solar flares
in the colding deep? Where do
you pour to, siphon of the sea?

Day Seven at Na/GloPoWriMo is a poem based on a news article – stumbled across an article about a newly found sea creature that is, essentially, a (very) long string of clones. The fascinating and perhaps horrific bits are that portions of the clones specialize into functioning groups not unlike organs and body systems, and the organism as a whole hunts.

References:
https://www.newsweek.com/otherworldly-150-foot-long-string-like-organism-deep-sea-millions-interconnected-clones-1496512

etymologies:
siphon – from Ancient Greek “pipe, tube”
phore – also Ancient Greek, “bearing”