Ode to Lowly Creatures

Haring gagamba (king spider), Amadeo, Cavite

Abe V Rotor

Spider

Your home is the space
where your embroidery sways
and glitters with the rainbow
giving life to shadow.

Redeem your mother Arachne
vanished for her art by Athene;
put the morning star to rest,
and the sun to its crest.


Diatoms

Fortune on the De Beers' wasteland -
diamonds embedded in the rocks,
the greatest wealth of any man,
vast and immeasurable in bucks.

To anyone of us a fortune awaits,
whose skill can too, blaze a trail
on land and sea where man satiates
his craving for the holy grail.

Here's wealth to the researcher;
in Sesame's magic the lens opens
to a world of diatoms everywhere,
a greater wealth that never ends.

Hermit Crab

A rare pet you are -
you never had a home,
now you have two:
you borrowed the one
on your back; the other,
above your head -
that you earned it from
the humility of a pet.

Actinotrichia fragilis, red Marine alga

Red Algae

You are mistaken
to be aloof and mean;
of all seaweeds
you are the least seen,
for you live in the depth,
in the dimmed coral reef,
clothed in violet or red
which is your greatest gift
to catch the fading light,
to escape the grazers
and to be out of sight.

Sargassum

You make a forest on the sea floor
where the fish hide from the storm;
what puzzles those who explore
is your massive yet simple form.

Above: Sargassum; snorkeling on coral reef, Bacnotan, La Union

Tussock Caterpillar

You are Medusa in the garden,
a serpent in garb all golden,
sowing destruction on your way
until Perseus put you away.


.Living with Nature 3, AVR; acknowledgement Wikipedia Diatoms