Hedleyella falconeri
What formuli are whorled inside

this home you sculpt out of your self:

secretions that belie the tensile

properties of bone, in favour of

a spiralling fluidity of form –

your nautiline and perfect exoskeleton.
Slower than aquatic counterparts

propelled by tides and brine,

you ponderously inch your way

across millennia, humbly yet

with dignity, terrestrial cartographer

of ancient forest at the crater’s rim;

slow-moving in a world obsessed

with speed, you forage after rain,

a fungivore whose home base

is the forest floor – time’s denizen.