Tridacna Maxima

Tridacna Giges

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

Within the Giant Clam there, deep, awaits

A flowing spiral, flowing in its shape

Though fixed in stiffness.  Spirals have their fates

As if in mine and yours.  When clam shells gape,

We see the loveliness like the pearls called

Baroque.  Byzantine in their forms are curves

An empress might have worn as if enthralled

Her God forgot perfection.  In their swerves

The clam’s insides and these imperfect pearls

Find triumph in their gloss and curvatures

Of necklaces.  The deep sea hidden swirls

Enshrine their mother of pearling allures.

  They serve as royal emblems of her God,

    Forever perfect since forever flawed.

©  Phillip Whidden