Poem: Aurelia Aurita

Ralph Hancock with this issue’s poem. This poem appears in the Web magazine Living Poets , Volume 1, Number VII, April 1996. It is reprinted by permission of the editor.

Aurelia Aurita
Chrysaora Isosceles

Aurelia aurita,
four violet rings in jelly,
one olympic ring short,
trailing lips;
four holes in a Celtic cross,
ring traps in a lobster pot,
food in, stays in,
sea-coloured belly.
Chrysaora isosceles,
opaque cloud of browns,
long tentacles of tissue paper streamers,
lung preserved in brine.

Barnacles mark high water
rusting two halves of a diamond
at the end of the quayside aquarium,
jellyfish pulse frilly by
pink image of olympian sex
and domestic sewage, choking smog,
creeping up the coast - oh yes,
creeping up the coast.