Lernaeodiscus porcellanae

Laernodiscus porcellanae

Let me tell you about my life
and you can tell me what I stand
for in your world of words:

Here I am

a barnacle that builds
no shell of his own but
slips into shielding
of a relative--a
crustacean, a crab--who
gives my little ones life.

Not at all like those
parasitioid wasps
that bedevil the poor tarantula.

No indeed, more subtle
my knife that slips and sews
our systems together
and my crab host
once male, now joins the gentle
gender and makes for me
a mountain of my own
eggs, to give rise to young who
make their own young females
to make more of our own.

(from the collection: Meaningful Menagerie)




for those who want to know more--The Life History of Lernaeodiscus porcellanae