eels by the dozen                       stained questions,

shimmering mud                       deep in slime.
natural science ends                 this unknown lineage,

a deathbed world                      more abundant still alive.
new eels                                       old lives as beetles

born of sea-foam                        or glass muscle.	
any eel answer                            another eel question

a world war                                 finally
here lie the great                        currents of their home

fluid and strange.                       with opened stomachs
the mature dusk                          of eels: quivering, watered

freshly writhing                          surges of wriggling.
what we wanted                          the eel

to be                                               eludes
 

 
After “Where Do Eels Come From?” by Brooke Jarvis.