Under Antarctic ice,
portly white sponges
filter frozen secrets.
Fifteen thousand years
old, they look like huge
flabby white jars.
Like bears and us,
they are omnivorous.
Landlords of a sort,
they host crustaceans
and worms and never
charge rent or evict.
Generous, they donate
bits of themselves
to feed sea stars.
Like soft boulders
or plump packages of time
mailed from the moon,
they fluctuate forever.
Some call all them giant
volcano sponges, others
Anoxycalyx joubini:
mere syllables, bubbles
bursting in viscous salt
currents. It's said you can
dive down and see them.
Please don't. A few photos
suffice, and their niche is
in no need of us. For sponges
are sisters of all other animals.
hans ostrom
