9/30 The colors of April

The water is freezing,

The waves crash with renewed vigor,

The rocky intertidal has been as near-dead

As the local clam shack for months.

No tourists

Little motion among the boulders

No love.

Each morning the sun casts long shadows earlier

Lingering longer on the horizon in the afternoon

And slowly the seaweed wakes up.

Mucous-filled bladders swell with anticipation

More mucous-y and bladdery and tinged with orange.

The flatworms and nudibranchs rise up in full glory,

Swords at the ready to fight for dominance.

Make lumpfish adorn a crimson hue,

Hoping their color will attract the ladies.

Never does it occur to them that they remain

One of the ugliest fish in the ocean.

Lobsters molt and await the sweet embrace.

Horseshoe crabs crawl into the shallows

With one thing on their minds

Gulls gather tall grasses

Build crude nests for the eggs growing inside them.

Whales put every piece of their skeleton to good use.

The coral broadcast their seed far and wide,

Counting on probability to carry them to a good home.

The water froths with the foam of spring.

With larvae and pollen and the Fucus mucous.

Obscure cells wake from their dormancy

And give each other "come-hither" looks

Winter has gone to bed

Warm winds of change are blowing in on the tides

And everything

Is reproducing.