Dance defines movement:
this is how fish
flit and dip in blue light
lacing kelp blades,
a quiver of spines.
And this is how starfish
watched by stalk-eyed crabs
consume the slow urchins.
Anemones open and close
like green hearts; sea worms
roll in the waves.
Watch now, the sea
lifts from its shell-bowl.
The galaxies expand.
Even in the egg slime
four-horned chromosomes
leap, then recede like stars.
— Lucille Lang Day
From Lucille Lang Day: Greatest Hits,
1975-2000, first published in Contemporary
Women Poets (Merlin Press)