Remora, Remora
Thomas Lux

Done! Thanks For Waiting.




Clinging to the shark

is a sucker shark,

attached to which

and feeding off its crumbs

is one still tinier, 

inch or two,

and on top of that one,

one the size of a nick of gauze;

smaller and smaller

(moron, idiot, imbecile, nincompoop)

until on top of that

is the last, a microdot sucker shark,

a filament’s tip—with a heartbeat—sliced off,

and the great sea

all around feeding

his host and thus him.

He’s too small

to be eaten himself

(though some things swim

with open mouths) so

he just rides along in the blue current, 

the invisible point of the pyramid,

the top beneath all else.

Thomas Lux