TO SEED

TO SEED

I swim
in the hot sea

the sharks
    making

a cup
of tea

the dolphins
having a siesta

and the octopus
(whose name is Alice)
has
    contrived a garden
that is
  itself an
eighth wonder

shells and pearls
fragments of coral
and
  sea cucumbers

something so
Imperial in all
her
propensities

(expanding to Empire
                  the germ
of an
          idea).