Aquarium Glass

When our colony of streaming astronauts

	adrift in undulation

became wind-filled 

	sails beneath the manta’s flight,

we gathered our boats to watch 

	the sea anemone’s solitary polyps 

morph into the Coronate medusa,

	the jewelry of our human form 

dissolve behind aquarium glass

	like Pelagia noctiluca, who light up only

when touched, or at night, 

	a chimera of silica needles

		coiling from its scarlet bell.

Tell me, which century 
		was our scarlet bell — 

	when our colony of streaming astronauts

		adrift in undulation

	became wind-filled 

sails beneath the manta’s flight

and we gathered our boats to watch 

		the sea anemone’s solitary polyps 

	morph into Coronate medusas,

			the jewelry of our human form dissolve.