The Sea Cucumber
        after Elizabeth Bishop

Each year is the same—rows of boys
and rows of girls line both sides
of the hall. Hushed walk to the waiting
bus. Dark green seats stuck to skin.

It's November. Insects scream loud
as car horns. No respite from Miami's
heat. Teachers count students one-two-three,
sit, then talk to parents—chaperones

who would rather be anywhere else.
The aquarium isn't far, but the drive
seems long. Kim and Jen make friendship
bracelets and a fight almost breaks out

between two of the boys—Jimmy's kicking
the back of Travis' seat. Each time the driver
hits a pothole, everyone's heads
come close to hitting the roof of the bus.

We're thirteen bottles of beer from the end
of the song when we lurch to a stop
in front of the Seaquarium. The noise level
rises as excited yells are carried forward

in a tidal wave of sound before we get off
the bus and back in lines. Let loose
upon the grounds, we ignore commands
of walk, don't run, fling ourselves into the park.

Our group meanders past the dolphin enclosure,
the stingray exhibit, and the crocodiles
to Discovery Bay, where we learn about sea turtles,
tropical birds, and the other creatures

that inhabit Florida's mangrove forests.
The guide shows off starfish and sea urchins,
calls them echinoderms, which means "spiny skin."
Then she picks up what looks like wet dog poop.

Cries of gross ring through our group, but we step
closer as she explains this sea cucumber can eject
its internal organs for protection and then grow
them back. They expel their own guts, turn inside

out, in order to tangle or confuse their prey with sticky
filaments. Nothing else measures up the rest of the trip.
On the ride home, we all yell out our favorite animal.
No one mentions the sea cucumber for fear

of not seeming cool. It's as though those of us
who liked them best now share a secret language
all our own. One of shy excitement. A lexicon
based on knowing how to let go. How to survive.

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Copyright © 2020 Avery M. Guess All rights reserved
from The Truth Is
Black Lawrence Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission