Snails
How convenient to carry a home on one’s back, I
think, disregarding heft and plumbing and the shape
of rooms too hollow to feel. Yesterday a box of African
chapbooks migrated to my doorstep, and I plucked
yellowing leaves from the tomato plant by the poetry
shack. Marine snails constitute the majority of snail
species, but we count first what we can see. Everything
turns–the days buzz by like male blackchins swooping
through their pendulum air-dance, and I tally my
diminishing hours from the safety of these walls.
Heliciculture is another word for snail farming, but
reminds me of stars spiraling wildly above my roof
each night, spewing poetic fire throughout the cosmos.
The neighbor mows her lawn and I observe the wind
stepping from treetop to treetop, another sign of the
earth’s continued rotation. Their slime permeates human
cosmetics to minimize premature skin aging, and was
once used medicinally to soothe coughs (I write this
as mucus slides down my throat, a response of the
lung’s filtration system to histamines). There is much
to consider about the intricacies of harvesting slime.
Most snail species consume plants, but a few are
predatory carnivores, which leads to questions
about their prey. Cooked in butter with garlic, served
with a dry white? I spear one, contemplate texture
and move on to the next, leaving behind no visible trail.
* * *
My poem “Snails” was published on Vox Populi in October 2017. Many thanks to founder and editor Michael Simms for giving this poem a home.
Nothing makes me quite as happy as discovering a snail in my yard. Growing up in the Texas panhandle, I just didn’t see a snail except on television and in books. Now in Florida I come across the little guys quite often. The fascinate me.
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They’re so interesting!
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I’ve never eaten one, though.
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I like them too much to eat them.
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Me, too!
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A delightful snail-pace crawl through your thoughts, Robert! Somehow I knew it would get to food! I’ve never (to my knowledge) eaten a snail. I have been known to feed them to the doves – some years the population exceeds garden tolerance, and we must thin them out.
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Ha! Yes, I’m likely to turn any disquisition, no matter the subject, towards food!
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what i find intriguing about snails is that during mating either can play the role of male or female by consensus depending on how each feels. What a gift of nature.
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Ah, flexibility!
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Oh my ! Good one 😀
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Thank you.
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Please follow my blog 😢 I don’t have many followers . I’m just a teenager who lacks speaking skills and hence , write to pass time . I need some encouragement and motivation from people across the globe .
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I’ll be sure to visit your blog. Read everything. Write. Revise. Revise again. Read more. Keep writing.
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