What Shapes This Wood

from The Underbelly of the Feast
Originally published by Mark Redden for at No Rush at Plataforma²

they came from the sea.

some crawled,
others swam.
others still stood on their hind legs,
staggering into the dunes.

out of the surf they leaped
into tidal pools.
into the mud they flopped
out of the canals.

some say, from the planks of sunken ships.
others, from the limbs of fallen trees.
others still, from spewing vents or cooling seeps,
deep down in the trench.

sometimes, we hear them singing in the caves.
other times, we watch them staring into the clouds.
other times still, we dance with them in the sand, 
the rising tide carrying us back out to sea.