The Whorl



MAGPIE TALES

http://magpietales.blogspot.com/
supplied the shell

THE WHORL

If ever proof were needed that humanity doesn't count,

(Well, maybe just a little,  but not a large amount)

A shell like this must give that proof in a very pertinent way.

The fact of our unimportance is clear, as clear as day.

If a God had made the earth for us to treat as our special toy,

He'd have made this glorious whorly thing for humans to enjoy.

He'd have fashioned it to lie around in grass, all earthly green,

To catch our eye on a country walk; he'd h ave made sure it was seen.

But no, it lies beneath the waves, where humans rarely go.

Only a few brave divers ever see that world below.

Nor is this lovely object alone beneath the sea.

Creatures of dazzling beauty  and great complexity,

Deep sea fish with wondrous tails and luminous bulging eyes,

Lie there beyond our normal ken, far from our airy skies.

Beautiful colours, crazy shapes, tendrils, and whorls and loops!

They lie and float and frisk and twirl and arrange themselves in groups.

And some are there in the blackness of the unimaginable deep,

Where they switch on little torches and bare their teeth and creep.

But not for us! No not for us! They'd live if we did not.

Their relationship to us isn't part of a heavenly plot.

We are organisms and so are the deep sea fish.

And nothing's going to alter that, however much we wish.

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ON DISPLAY

Seen in the Chinese Room.
Chinese? Surely, red and black and fireworks!
No, blue upon blue, waves and horizon in a dish.
*