Of Note: Self-Portrait In Ink

by Bruce Beasley

As the gone-
translucent

octopus
jet-blasts into evasion, vanishing

while its ink-sac spurts
a cloud of defensive

mucus & coagulant
azure-black pigment,

self-shaped
octopus imago in ink, so the shark

gnashes at that blobbed
sepia phantom,

pseudomorph
that disperses into black

nebulae & shreds
with each shark-strike

& the escaped
octopus throbs

beyond, see-through
in the see-through water, untouched--:

so, go
little poem, little

ink-smudge-on-fingertip
&-print, mimicker


& camouflage,
self-getaway, cloud-

scribble, write
out my dissipating

name on the water,
emptied sac of self-illusive ink...

____

This is a love story; and
bitter prayer, in disappointment to
be more than
I have been.