Octopus Moon

Mama says
I can stay home from school.
Daddy doesn’t argue,
just looks at me
with a million questions in his eyes.

I just want to stay in my room
with Tuck
all day.

But no deal.
Mama says if I miss school
I have to
eat breakfast
make up my bed

brush my teeth
put on actual clothes
and
go to work with her.

I can’t spend the day
with Gram because Granddaddy
has a checkup with the doctor
and Gram has to go with him because
Granddaddy’s not much of a talker.
Especially to doctors.

I guess it could be worse.
I love the aquarium.
All the different worlds.
Alien worlds but
familiar as family too.
I feel safe there.

Thursdays at the Gulfarium are quiet,
which suits me just fine.
Mama hands me a bottle of cleaner
and a roll of paper towels.
“Do me a favor and clean the exhibits
in the Caribbean section.”

I clean nose- and fingerprints off
the glass fronts.
Today
there’s a new information sign
above the octopuses’ tank:
Octopuses have millions of touch receptors
all over their bodies. Just one tiny sucker on an octopus arm
has tens of thousands of touch sensors!
There is no barrier between what an octopus feels
and its world.

“I am an octopus,” I whisper.
“There is nothing between me and the world.”
Where did my hard turtle shell go?
The one I could hide in and not feel
Everything.

I take the back stairs down
to the Denizens of the Deep.
Maybe if I see Noah
the loggerhead turtle,
look into his black marble eyes,
I’ll see the old Pearl
reflected back.

I sit on a bench and watch
the sharks and rays and fish
in their peaceful world.
Then,
out of the corner of my eye,
I see Noah swim lazily up
from behind the sunken treasure chest.

I tap on the glass three times.
With a flap of his arms
he comes over.
We are almost nose to nose.
He turns his broad head sideways
for a better look.
“What do you see?” I whisper.

A stream of bubbles
rises from his nose in answer
like a sentence I can’t read.

Noah soars to the top of the tank
to drink in the air.
I can see bright light
above the water.
I can even see people moving around
like silver, wavy shadows.
But I am down here in the dark
separated from all that light
and life
above.