Hello Spider Crab

you carapaced underwater creature
eyeballing me from chitinous stalks
you think you’re hidden
in your algae streaked shell
you stop stock still
hunker down in fine sand
pretend to be a rock

I see you

anthropomorphise you
old man spider crab
fetch your ciggies from the corner shop crab
glam spider crab mum on the school run
in leopard print jeggings, you
wave your antennae in annoyance
from your spi-mobile SUV
or you’re teen spidey meeting your mates
down the Bladderwrack for a bevvy or two
or bouncy crablet toddler on the go

hello spider crab
hidey crab
living your spider life
I splash-disappear
burrow into your sky
like a strange thick-legged plane

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Ella Walsworth-Bell is a poet and speech therapist from Cornwall. She sea-swims as often as she can. Her poems have appeared in Leon Literary Review, Morphrog, Public Sector Poetry, Strix, Acumen and A New Ulster. She leads women’s poetry collective Mor Poets, who have created three poetry anthologies ‘Morvoren’, ‘Mordardh’ (supported by Arts Council England) and ’Mordros’, which was shortlisted for a Holyer an Gof Award. Their latest work Wild Women is published by Inkfish Press.