All Octopus Mothers Die in Their Dens
All octopus mothers die in their dens,
but not until they’ve shot their children out
into the ocean
with an appendage that looks like
a T-shirt cannon,
like something
used for stunts in a sad circus.
Their children are too small,
wrong-looking and raw,
like degloved hands,
or
like your own children
being driven in cars by other
children.
What stupid, dangerous things
will they do together while laughing and
never seeing
the things that lurk
above and below and from every side?
It makes my hair stand up.
It makes my skin crawl.
But look at them—
they just float along, young and clean and
blameless.
Ridiculous, it’s all so ridiculous.
And beautiful, too,
especially the way they swim
when they swim quickly to get away,
and how serious they look when
they leave.
—Désirée Hupy
illustration by Happy Burbeck
