for Snail 2 by Mary Lou Payzant
Pressed into polished folds
beneath concentric coral orbs
she plummets down the rabbit hole
to bronzed flashes of lucent white,
the nub stark at the vortex.
Babbling to her own inner Hatter
she sips Himalayan blackberry tea,
divines the tilt and squeak of the centrifuge.
Antennae project, lovely throat glistens
as she glides majestic through a marbled world —
sentient, expansive with the beauty of breathing,
the wonder of mollusks and redwood.
Charmed beasts share their secrets,
listen to those coiled within her moon.
Earthbound flesh delight in this life.
Heard, spared she snails soft aqua roads
flushed with the radiance of small things.