Alice Louise Jones

UNWIELDY, huge, with no defined

Plexus to gauge his gravity,

An ancient mariner he stands,

And gravely bends his gaze on me.

His black eyes twinkle; he confirms

The memory of some struggling fish

Caught like a jewel in his beak,

Which serves him both as bowl and dish.

The fringed rock buttressing the spray,

The burnished kelp, the sea, the sky,

He views with quiet nonchalance

And elephantine majesty.

With legs wide-spread, and solemn mien,

Like some old graybeard of the seas,

He balances his heavy chest—

A metamorphic Socrates.