Endangered Species

by: Carolyn Howard-Johnson

A dragon, hiding as dragons

do, to pounce upon prey, shock

them into submission with forked

tongue, spiked tail, blue-green

scales, brimstone breath. But not

a sea dragon, this—nearly misnamed

a seahorse—dainty—

disguises herself in briny

fronds, sways with the current.

her delicate horn-shaped

snout trumpets silence.

Long like a dragon,

long as a water-lily stem,

soft, and—presumably,

slick. She flourishes

her leaf-like fins, the translucent

shade of her underwater forest

of amber seaweed pads, exactly,

matches her dance to that of the kelp

—ballet in slow motion

so the visitor to her underocean

home will not see her. She will take

them by surprise

with tenderness.