Jellyfish

On a clear day when the smog was high
We would venture out of the warm to see them
And bite the pitiless whip of flying sand

The lucid discs and inky globs surrounding
Made me think of salt and pepper specks on festering aspic
The sand was viscid here, the impurity foul

But the rainbow effect on the wavy umber pleased me
And the light reflecting off the dewy meat seemed less like perfection spoiled than I’d first imagined

On TV we’d watch them
Luminous mushrooms with legs, now here
Pale and glistening as the wind stirred their bodies
Their poor limbs all bent and setting in the cold sun

And even in all their glutinous glory
There was still a part of me that wanted to touch one
To feel his lipid alien head, a mangled mood light

The poison only made us want it more
And as I handled the craggy rock
I licked my salty lips for guilty guts
Piercing the blubbery lid

The tiny body wept cream liquid
Macabre met my acid stomach, sick
I looked at its broken face lying melded with the grain
Till the sea slurped it up

Through metallic stench of rotting jelly flesh
Pools of black and playmates’ ceaseless jeering
With stinging eyes I ran home
Heysham smouldering in the distance

Painting by Jenna Simmonds-Sawle