I am trying ♕ my best
to be a chessboard
but can't figure ♛ this
out—to blend into a binary
as old as light ♔ that predates
any colour dreamed up
in the history ♚ of man.
This high contrast hugs
tighter than a strait
-jacket and scatterbrains
my pigments ♗ It’s harder
to hide in plain sight
than ever before ♝ I look
more like a leopard
print throw ♘ or the question
mark of a lemur’s tail.
I could turn ♞ into a UFO
in seconds to hypnotise
a crab ♖ but I’m yet
to crack this pattern.
Take me back ♜ to a reef
and I'll be its ghost.
Show me ♙ a shipwreck
and I'll shapeshift
into a chest ♟ of glittering
doubloons—fool's gold
is worth less ♙ than you think.
But a chessboard is my dark side
of the moon ♟ If you please,
♙ fly me to the mouth
of a crater ♟ and you'll never
see me again.
From: Vol.11 N.01 – Queering Ecopoet(h)ics
Self-Portrait as Cuttlefish
by
Sean West
