They Wait in the Shallows
Melissa at dVerse Melissa has asked us to write a Quadrille, a poem of exactly 44 words, including the prompt word, or variant of, lagoon.
I used lagoon itself, as well as shallows. For this I was picturing a coastal lagoon when the tide was out, an estuary, a mudflat. When I was growing up my brother lived along a levee on the Sacramento Delta. He'd take family out in his boat to one of the many islands for a picnic. I remember wading into the water, and there was only a mud bottom. I found it disgusting, slimy, and would sink into it. I lost a favorite ring sticking my fingers in the mud. The tide goes out, it stinks and the midges appear. So, yeah... mudflats and estuaries. Shallows and coastal lagoons. Who knows what lurked down there!
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| the author in her brother's boat c. mid-1960s |
Watch when you wade
in the shallows!
Beasties, rapacious and sly
await
Razor toothed
and venomous
Just under the sand
Beware the lagoon
where sea bottom’s hidden!
Wee cankerous worms
alert
Sucking mouths
and slimy shapes
Deep in the mud
They watch
They wait
©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved
I do know some beautiful lagoons. One of my favorites is the lagoon at Pudding Creek Beach in Fort Bragg, California. That just wasn't what popped into my head, and out into a poem!
Lisa, I enjoyed learning about your personal connection to lagoons. I'm imagining one of those beasties wearing your lost ring and smiling.
ReplyDeleteI lost my original wedding ring swimming in a tidal mudflat estuary way back in the 70's. Never found it. Methinks a cantankerous slimy worm may be wearing it! ;D
ReplyDeleteI have grown used to feel less scared of the things that hides underneath, but I recognize the feeling.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the background and introduction to your quadrille, Lisa, as the place where you grew up is so different to mine - the nearest large area of water to us was the River Thames. I would have loved going out on a boat and having a picnic on an island. But then, I knew no better. You really brought out the danger and horrors of a lagoon in your quadrille, especially the ‘beasties, rapacious and sly… razor toothed and venomous’. What made me shiver were the ‘wee cankerous worms… sucking mouths and slimy shapes deep in the mud’. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteThis brought me back memories of my own traversed shallows, but these did not have worms (or probably did!), yet what they did have are massive crabs - which I happen to be deadly terrified of! Thank you for sharing the poem, its lovely!
ReplyDeleteHad no idea lagoons had to be approached with such caution. They seem so picturesque but, hey, "Sucking mouths/and slimy shapes/Deep in the mud" -- yikes!
ReplyDeleteYour quadrille of warning is great. I especially love “Beasties, rapacious and sly” and “Wee cankerous worms”. I enjoyed the picture and memories as well.🩵🌊
ReplyDeleteI like your take on the prompt. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteI like your take on the prompt. Nice quadrille.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem! I love the eerie warning of the last two lines.
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