A striving yellow slug
leaves its fading iridescent trail
caught smack in the midday sun
on a blazing concrete sidewalk
trying its hardest and so
roasting in effort how a soul shrinks
An African snail inches higher up
and onto the near razor thin edge
of a galvanized pail
topples over and into a salt water pool
trap set and sinking to the bottom
dissolving into nothingness
a shell of its former self
A brown eel starts from its sleep
to the nightmare of its confining dark hole
claustrophobic in its need to get out
it pushes from its dingy place toward the light
scraping its body bloody on the jagged coral
impeding its progress into open water
summoning those who prey
The born dying onto dead
what has been promised to them
is so not so not so
do not make false promises
to the Yellow and Black and Brown
for they will haunt you for your lies
until the sun dies, the water dries, and the predatory
tear savage white teeth into themselves
for cruel hunger and ghosted madness
Lanning Lee 