[P] and there was the wordless, singing world

[Nicnevin]

OR I THINK SO, I THINK THEY WERE
a kind of luminescent dark cobalt, / but it was over so fast

At my inquiry, the boy all but saunters up to me, a look of almost-pure confidence on his face, in his stride; it’s almost charming, and it almost makes me giggle. He comes to stand with me on the rocks, and I notice that he won’t meet my eyes, but that’s probably because he looks down almost immediately at the water – and, more importantly, at the creatures dwelling within it.

I stare down at each creature that he gives a name to, wholly mystified by his explanations. (His eager tone, too, does little to assuage my enthusiasm.) The lionfish has a pattern more like a tiger, I think, but then the fact of its spines occur to me – they protrude almost like a lion’s mane. The seahorses perplex me immediately. He claims that they have no relation to us, which assuages some of my confusion, but I don’t really understand the name until I take a closer look at some of their little faces. They are long, and the angle of them almost resembles the face of a horse.

The royal sea star is utterly incomprehensible to me, however. I am newly-acquainted with the concept of a star, and the purple creature doesn’t seem to resemble one at all. I don’t doubt his explanation at all, however. He’s far too enthusiastic about the creatures in this tide pool to be lying to me. (I think.)

He informs me that this is a particularly good “tide pool,” too, and that some of the others only contain barnacles and urchins. I cock my head at him, eyes widening a fraction. “Barnacles? Urchins?” I don’t, of course, know what either of those things are – or why they aren’t particularly good or interesting finds. (That is, perhaps, because everything is good and interesting to me at the moment; it is easy to be easily impressed when everything in the world is new.) The boy introduces himself as Caspian, apologizes for startling me, and informs me that he can tell me everything there is to know about this stretch of the beach.

I am only too happy to take him up on his – heavily implied – offer.

I smile at him gently, too enamored with the prospect of more knowledge to hold much of a grudge about my near-tumble into the so-called “tide pool.” “No worries - I’m Nicnevin,” I say. “It’s nice to meet you, Caspian.” I wasn’t so sure about that at first, but I don’t think that anyone who could talk so happily about sea creatures could be a bad person. Almost shyly, and well-aware of my own ignorance, I add, “I just saw the ocean for the first time a couple of weeks ago, so I’d really appreciate anything you can tell me.”

I don’t even know where to start with my questions, though; I don’t even know how to ask half of them. But - the sight of the lionfish moving around in my peripheral vision gives me a rather good idea.

“Do you think that you could show me what more of the creatures in these…tide pools…are?”

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@Caspian || <3 <3 <3 | "ars poetica," sally ball 

"Speech!" 

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