underwater life size sculptures by Jason de Caires Taylor, near Cancun off the coast of Mexico
… an up-stir
shoots sand quick to slow sideways
as a grey stingray trails free of a dust-like cloud;
fluting cream underwings it flies away
low through the aged-blue ocean
soft-shadowing the newly reefed
vertical beings of deeper shades
as if here their height had yesterdays.
Sun shrapnels leisurely
through skylights of wave and wash
floating fragments down
dart-dappling waiting upturned faces
unaware
gathered they share shallow warmth
on sculptured flesh
and yet stone-alone
obsessed only with the act of drowning
in bliss – lips smiling eyes closed.
Now a cello growls;
vowels round all four hundred figures
its breath skimming
intimate as sharks’ silk circling newcomers –
a rolled-brim knit-hated girl lollypop-cheeked
grins double-gripping a coins-unspent handbag;
a woman bare-breasted drape-hipped
arms cradling her belly
offers light’s wisdom to her near born;
a man keeling head up leaning back on his heels
arms wide palms open offers thanks
as if in a lightening-blue field of drought breaking;
a nun with Please for a mouth
her face shadow-wrinkles in no other prayer;
a young man head-scarfed coral-knotted
hands at work but suddenly paused
senses love about his neck;
a man chin-relaxed blowing fish silver
bubbles mute sings ahhhh hymns;
a small curly crowned boy head down
sleeps sitting up without rippling fins;
a man arms crossed shields his face
from yet another promise soon to darken.
Shoals straining through the plankton melody
nibble from an English lady’s scarf
from a Buddhist’s large earlobe’s algae
from a mother’s orange sway-growing coat
from a hunched Chinaman’s toes.
And while fish of colours and stripes circumnavigate
feeding off the immortalised – all are unaware
souvenir hunters are dropping
black as frogs
snorkelling
against the light.