THE SEA HORSE
(for Linda Hill)
It makes no difference what the scientists say
The hand of God that drew night and day
Out of the mysterious void so we could be
Said "Let there be light." Then He conceived the Sea.
So God made nature, His bride and artifact,
Who must be joined to man to be exact
Solicitous, creative, her form adored—
But men are treacherous, and she gets bored.
The sea bows out, so has a neat acquittal
But a woman has to hang on, it's marital
Defined by her childbearing propensity
He ignores her intellectual intensity.
The exclamation mark on femine creation,
The seahorse, is father and mother of a nation
Bearing his eggs, his body all erect
Indicates Genesis to be unfinished tract.
The clam, the flagellate, the urchin and the crab,
Outride the night-time fancy of Queen Mab
What finger initialling in the sand
Would be seahorse in the middle of that band?
I, said the mother, who would die of thirst
Rather than be considered first
The protozoa and the doughty trilobite
Having precedence in this unseemly fight.
So the wedding's done, the guests have gone to seed
To celebrate necessity and greed
Who in her bridal gown of plangent seaweed
Can sing the sadness of a broken reed?
(for Linda Hill)
It makes no difference what the scientists say
The hand of God that drew night and day
Out of the mysterious void so we could be
Said "Let there be light." Then He conceived the Sea.
So God made nature, His bride and artifact,
Who must be joined to man to be exact
Solicitous, creative, her form adored—
But men are treacherous, and she gets bored.
The sea bows out, so has a neat acquittal
But a woman has to hang on, it's marital
Defined by her childbearing propensity
He ignores her intellectual intensity.
The exclamation mark on femine creation,
The seahorse, is father and mother of a nation
Bearing his eggs, his body all erect
Indicates Genesis to be unfinished tract.
The clam, the flagellate, the urchin and the crab,
Outride the night-time fancy of Queen Mab
What finger initialling in the sand
Would be seahorse in the middle of that band?
I, said the mother, who would die of thirst
Rather than be considered first
The protozoa and the doughty trilobite
Having precedence in this unseemly fight.
So the wedding's done, the guests have gone to seed
To celebrate necessity and greed
Who in her bridal gown of plangent seaweed
Can sing the sadness of a broken reed?