by Rose Mary Boehm
Plankter, a word that’s hardly ever used.
You’ll never find just one. Plankter. Any organism
living in the water column, says Wikipedia,
and incapable of swimming
against a current
is a plankter.
Plankton.
Food supply for fish and whales.
Even sharks like them as appetizers.
In the Big-Bang scheme of things, a human
must appear quite small. Depending
on your distance, and how powerful
your binoculars are.
30,000 feet is still not high enough.
We are talking a couple of light-years.
At least.
Do you see humans swim against the currents?
They gather on this side of the current barrier.
You spy some rapidly opening mouths.
By plankton’s standard, jellyfish are giants.
Still, they must stay put.
But even the ones capable
of independent movement,
the errant knights,
can’t do other than vertical.
The “diel vertical migration.”
Look it up.
(Relatively) young and upwardly mobile.
I heard that somewhere.
Movement determined by the surrounding
currents. Come, shark, come eat.
Today’s currents are what there is.
But our delusion of independent movement
remains complete. Delusion, illusion . . .
My fellow plankton, I honor you.