The Dolphin Queen: Turtle and Caterpillar
Enter The Citadel of Pearl, Only to Find
The Duchess Has Been There First

Turtle: These red tides I labor through —
Caterpillar:                                Thick as blood

Turtle: Colored like welts
Caterpillar:                   Something makes the salt air ill

Turtle: This brined sea wind tastes bitter to me
Caterpillar:                                      biled

Turtle: My breath comes hard
Caterpillar:                       So close to the citadel




Turtle: This all seems wrong
Caterpillar:                     Is there no welcoming

Turtle: No whale song
Caterpillar:                   No starred parapets of mountains

Turtle: No Queen's Guards
Caterpillar:                    Where crowds wave  flags winnowing

Turtle: Here are no subjects
Caterpillar:                    Only verbed motions




Turtle: The wind-shalloped waves
Caterpillar                         Tug me to this bay

Turtle: In which nothing lives
Caterpillar:                    In the dead-jammed canal

Turtle: By the Pearl Castle
Caterpillar:                   The dead float like buoys

Turtle: Beside their Queen
Caterpillar:                   Slain in the gutted coral




Turtle: The Moisture Duchess
Caterpillar:                     Who thinks through violence

Turtle: Rules Only these spelless nights now
Caterpillar:                                  Ruined   voiceless...



Stuart Lishan | Mudlark No. 16
Contents | The Duchess' Destruction of Earth's 999 Moons