Sunday, April 3, 2011

Titus's Animal Bus

So Titus is driving this week and gave us a world of (or at least 8 of) the world's most fascinating creatures to choose from as our inspiration.
I went for the Archer fish, at Titus' suggestion - though I didn't manage another of my poems to dissuade on it, I found the creature very interesting having done a little research.

See here for a visual on this impressive hunter.

Then go here for more Animal poems

Then read on for my attempt
.

Marksman

.

Hard shelled dark crawlers

Spied from depths

A hunter gazing unseen

at all the scrabbling life

Unlikely victims firm in every foot

.

A silver spear of underworld

Is aimed to hit home hard

Knock off a lurching walk

Invertebrate, confused, inverted now

falls into smoothened mirrors

and gobbled quick by sulky looking silk

a greedy jaw stuck out in gluttony

.

The flashing fish performs

this trick and leaves

one more breath squeezed out

of air’s domain

19 comments:

Emerging Writer said...

Gripping. Great, scary vocabulary and images. Thanks

Totalfeckineejit said...

The little bastard!

Totalfeckineejit said...

'Falls into smoothened mirrors'and 'a silver spear of underworld'

Mucho neato!

Helen said...

One terrifying fish! Sharks won't frighten me from now on ....

Titus said...

Ooh, that's a class effort Niamh. Stunning word choice, a succession of great images and narrative too.
Which is just what EW said...

Loved it, rate it, can I have it?

Peter Goulding said...

Its kind of the opposite of fishing, isn't it?
Agree with TFE - one little bastard.

The Bug said...

I think these fish are EXTRA clever - I'm fascinated by them. And your poem tells their story quite well :)

Louise said...

Nasty little piece of work alright, nifty poem though!

Domestic Oub said...

Great bloody poem!

"Invertebrate, confused, inverted now" fantastic! The last verse? Class!

Niamh B said...

Thanks EW, TFE, he is isn't he?
Helen, glad to have got you over the fear of sharks.
Tks Titus, I'd be delighted :-)
Peter when you put it like that I guess it's kind of fair enough?! you're making me question everything.
Tks Bug - they're an interesting discovery alright!
Tk you socks and Oub - very kind :-)

Doctor FTSE said...

Don't mess with the archerfish. She knows more about ballistics, gravity, water pressure and the refractive index of water than we do . . . and she never went to school!

Argent said...

I'm with TFE on the smoothened mirrors line. Nicely sinister with idea of the fish claiming something from the air-breathing world.

Jinksy said...

A different kind of fishy story...

Lucy Westenra said...

Some amazing video-clips of the little B on YouTube.

Kat Mortensen said...

Attempt? Attempt? Pshaw!
Sheer brilliance with its inversion of invertebrate and inverted, and other gems.

Love the "underworld" line.

Kat

Niamh B said...

FTSE - I heard they go to school a bit though...
Tks Argent, very kind!
Tis fishy alright Jinksy.
Lucy - I'm going to ignore you, as I'm fairly sure you're some kind of spammer. If I'm wrong feel free to let me know.
Thanks Kat, you're very kind :-)

NanU said...

Gluttony indeed! great poem, Niamh

Niamh B said...

Thanks NanU!

MuseSwings said...

How brave of you to get within striking distance of the archer fish! Striking verse!