Weedy Sea-Dragons

With something of a racehorse's vigilance
of eye, taut slenderness, they move just faster
than the speed of stagnation — by drift,
out of sheer necessity — sip plankton
through a straw, sport manes of kelp that ripple
as they flow nowhere — at one with their milieu.
(How we know the veils we hide amongst.)
Streaks of mauve and gold help them stay unseen…
Light fills a weightless body found sea-stripped
near sandy feet. Ants circle eye-sockets,
work at a final cleansing: this innocent bone
patched with fish skin, its shape rhythmed in
an upbeat — a gracefully complicated wave
poised between quietism, a quirky valour.