Limulus Polyphemus
 
I remember a springtime evening
when I was 12 and my sister 10
we got into our dad’s 55 Chevy
to go see a surprise, he said
we parked at the beach
watched the light of the full moon
sparkle on dark water
 
Hundreds of prehistoric-looking
creatures swarmed onto the sand
grayish-green shells glistening under moonlight
some of them bigger than my head
rounded in front with a
triangular lower body and a
long dangerous-looking spiky tail
smaller ones rode piggyback on bigger ones
for an easier ride ashore
 
More arrived with each small wave
sand obscured by their clumsily moving bodies
bigger ones stopped to dig holes in the sand
and then lumbered off
while smaller ones raced each other to
the spots where they had been
we watched them till way past bedtime
mesmerized by their primordial forms
 
On moonlit spring nights now
their abundance is only a memory
these creatures that predate the dinosaur
harvested as bait for fisherman
and for their blue blood
their spring rituals make them easy targets
simple as shooting fish in a barrel
 
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Jac-Lynn Stark was born in the Bronx and currently lives on the North Shore of Boston where she enjoys pondering life either from near the ocean or in the woods. She recently retired from 14 years of teaching English at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. Her work has been published in Nimrod International Journal, American Graveyard, calls to end gun violence (an anthology from Read or Green Books), Muddy River Poetry Review, Global Poemic, and others.