Slugs
Under the raspberries
under the mint
under the leaves,
a kingdom is growing,
moving, crossing
slick trails like swords
of wet dominion.
Under the tent tarp
under our heads
under our dreams,
a whole world
is sleeping with us,
unseen in the cool
and the damp,
mouthparts always
chewing on something,
be it memory or plan.
A word about Open Link Night: This takes place each Tuesday afternoon/evening/night at dVerse, a website by and for poets. You post a poem on your blog, and then you add a link on the dVerse site, and then you get lots and lots of new visitors (and of course, you visit other poets, too). Thanks again, Anna, for letting me know about it!
Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
like earthworms….that was my first thought…chewing &…out the other end…ha…
So many unseen creepy things right under our feet!
A nightcrawling metaphor – things that slime in the dark, probably best not turned over by day. Interesting poem.
Thanks! This poem was inspired by a recent camping trip. We went to fold the tarp and saw that we had stowaways.
Ooooooh, I like that!
Thank you!
always chewing, slimy. yikes. thanks. nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you, too! The slugs that inspired this poem looked pretty cute once they put up their little attennae/eyes/whatever those are. Still gross, though.
Always think of them as the Roman army: ‘marchin on their stomachs’.[gastropods]
my present destruction data for this year is 1273. But I have to get up in the middle of the night to crunch the largest numbers.
Wow, that’s a lot of slugs! And I loooove your comparison to the Roman army. 🙂
Yes, know just what you mean 🙂 Do like how you’ve used movement to explore the theme here.
Thank you, Becky!
Oh, this so appeals to the biologist in me :). Sorry I am terribly behind in my OLN reading this week (life and my laptop trying to self-destruct). I remember my shock and amazement the first time I saw images from the electron microscope, truly fascinating.
Also, the banana slugs in the redwood forest of California held my attention one afternoon :).
Were they enormous?
Quite.
Thank you! I’m fascinated by biology, too — and any time I get a sense of a whole other world that I haven’t previously noticed.
Reads like metaphor for the brain or mind’s tendency to constantly stay on something, slowly digesting or generating ideas. Working unnoticed under the hood. Slow but with purpose.
Enjoyed the poem (though I’m not a fan of slugs). 🙂
Thank you! I really like your take on it.
there’s quite a lot for my brain to “chew” in this poem 🙂 and not a word too much or too little! perfect!