& on this occasion on some beach

you picked up the shell intrigued

& you wanted to see a hermit crab naked

because you’d never seen that before

& sometimes you ask me why I don’t talk

& you pull & pull words out of my mouth

like teeth like you pulled & pulled

that crab out of its shell

but it wouldn’t let go

it wouldn’t let go until

by sheer force

I shut up

& it ripped in half

& you felt sorry & sorry

just as you did after blowing my house down

& you can’t help your huff & puff

how it never runs out

& I can’t help my quiet way

& now I want to scuttle all the way home

but I have no house & there are birds in the sky

& I wish I didn’t need a shell

but that is the nature of hermit crabs

though wolves might wonder why & why