Carol Peters

[from Muddy Prints, Water Shine]

Hitchhiker

The hermit crab
is wearing
a snail’s shell.

Articulate
legs flank
the pincers,

antennae weaving,
eye stalks,
domed medallion.

A pen forages
inside the shell,
frees a tail

that coils
around the ballpoint tip
— is inked.

Emptied shell.
Spilled being.

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