Cryptobiosis

Sea Monkeys do not get enough credit.
My Sea Monkeys don’t try to impress me
by telling me they’re professional shrimp.
They don’t tell me they’re artists. They just swim
and eat and reproduce. And even though
they don’t constantly tell me what they are
they convince me by being what they are.
Being themselves is impressive enough.

Throughout all the years I’ve raised Sea Monkeys
not one of my Sea Monkeys has ever
pulled itself from its twelve ounce container
and said, “I abdicate my shrimpiness!”
Not one of my Sea Monkeys has ever
pulled itself from its twelve ounce container
and revealed itself to be not a shrimp
but really, say, a goldfish in disguise.

Sea Monkeys do not get enough credit.
They’re not as cool as the silly pictures
comic books printed in Sea Monkey ads
but while comic books and advertising
have abdicated whatever they had,
have revealed themselves to be other things,
my Sea Monkeys are still swimming, eating
and reproducing. And that’s cool enough.