Michael Walsh

 
 Looking Glass 
 by Michael Walsh   
                

I see coral
purple as love poetry,
and the polyp himself,
beautiful stone-maker
that he is.
 
I see ciliated wrigglers,
spooling ooze
and touching circumspectly;
 
green water pumpers
and sliding pink limpets;
broadcasting squid;
 
walkabout feather-stars;
 
libido everywhere,
slipping in and out;
 
an oversized fish
with a melancholy lip;
 
a jumpy dinoflagellate;
 
cool-as-the-moon sea-squirts,
and see-through jellyfish,
 
open minds of the sea,
 
lovely apprehenders,
entirely sentient:
 
like pale octopus,
a friend of mine,
a blithe spirit:
 
and like myself,
out-of-tentacle,
riding the smooth water,
glassy-eyed
over my own blue past.  

 poem by Michael Walsh
 from Neuron Mirror  

• Back row, left to right: sister-in-law, James Walsh (brother), John Walsh (brother), niece and nephew.
• Front row, left to right: Lori Walsh (sister-in-law), Mary Walsh (Michael's mother), Pat Walsh (sister),
          Virginia Walker, and a niece.