Quandry
For Samuel Bowser and B-043, 2005

How odd you've not seen
these crater stars before, Sam.

Perhaps the gromias intelligence
leads them to consider
there may be some sense in beautifying
their sterile laboratory environment.

Well, why not, Sam?
Why not?

We place them in our time frame but
Explorers Cove is their domain.
350 million years ago, the same purple
scallops and luminous white
sea stars graced the forams seabed.

We are the newcomers here, strangers passing
through. We haul them to the surface,
intent on finding answers to the universe
and yes, they show us many things.

But here we are now
talking, and there they are, ancient
and silent as always.

We translate what we think
they know into what they know
we cannot understand. And
as for these crater stars, Sam?

Imagine the ripples through the science community
when you say youve discovered the worlds oldest
one-celled creature designing wallpaper for the heck of it
in your petri dish in Albany, New York?

But wait. Theres another possibility. Perhaps
your gromia miss the old Antarctic
sea stars, and these strange shapes
are simple expressions of their dreams for home.