The Cuttlefish
The cuttlefish has no skull
and three hearts
so it must camouflage
The cuttlefish has three hearts
but no backbone
to survive it must dazzle
unveil electric skin, myriad intersecting
iridescences, an ever unspooling
film of itself―
a screen that is a mirror
that is a screen―
The cuttlefish has three hearts
but no skill
a mouth hidden inside its mouth
& teeth on its tongue
to survive you
it must dazzle, use subterfuge
leave song and self
unbidden swirl
off its
inky skin
Aquarelle
The cuttlefish flounce
sea anemone mouth
tendrils of tongue are afloat
in a liquid nowhere
as a hand appears ex-machina―
silverfish dropped from pincers―
vanquished by one lightning flash
grasp
it has teeth on its tongue you tell me
my eye is fixed
on the water-level
above or below
worlds that are
not quite mirror
images
when you love one
you love them all
something about the tender avidity
of my dog’s dark gaze,
his directional ears, and whiskers
reminds me of the waterbound leaps of the penguins
quicksilver swallows in air
my dog smacks his lips
when we talk
humans eat air
he must wonder about that
back in the tank,
we learn of the lost eye
of the fish, painted
near the tail
and designed to fool predators
not to know
if we’re coming or going
Black & White
in my front yard is a white horse
in my backyard is a black crow
in the front tree is a black plastic wing
torn from somewhere I don’t know
in the backyard is a white plastic
chair, marking the spot
legs in the air
in a backward glance
is a white cat
weaving through legs
at every pass
the black cat crows
the black plastic blows
the white horse gets sold
the white plastic chair
lies upside down
marks the spot in the air
where the tree will grow
Vasiliki Katsarou’s poems have appeared in Contemporary American Voices, Poetry Daily, Noon: Journal of the Short Poem, Regime Journal, wicked alice, Literary Mama, Wild River Review, as well as a number of anthologies. Her first collection, Memento Tsunami, was published in 2011. She read her work at the 2014 Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry festival in the United States. Her website is http://onegoldbead.com/.