Waterstrider’s Honeymoon Cruise
Waterstrider’s Honeymoon Cruise1
have more stripes than any man
inside myself I’m a crowd
no need for command, i morph into
an airtight seal. drybag. zipper top to bottom.
at sea, there is a captain, and he walks a bottle
all the way down. i forget myself in the dark
when i close my eyes, the rest of me shuts.
uncorked mezcal, glasses of secrets, he begs me
to dive. wobbling the night. turning star’s names
into slurs. there is no where to go but over
board. he’s afraid of sharks. i answered the crew-call
with a promise to swim. we become two more unknowns
in the mooring. i spread my body out like a predator
belly down, eyes fixed on chill, anywhere but
where he jellyfishes. i wish i could have this forever
you can – he whispers. knowing every dream has it’s patron
on my back, like the shrimp that snap in my ears,
he steers me on top of his fantasy. my neck refusing
a starfish is all heads. staring into the darkest ripples
i hold my breath like an undertow. picking my fingers
chumming the water.
- A male water strider intimidates a female by directly attracting predators as long as she does not accept the male's coercive copulation attempt. This male strategy is a counteradaptation to the evolution of the female morphological shield protecting her genitalia from coercive intromission by water strider males.↩
