The Hermit Crab Mary Oliver

Once I looked inside … the darkness ……of a shell folded like a pastry ………and there was a fancy face—   or almost a face— …it turned away ……and frisked up its brawny forearms ………so quickly   against the light …and my looking in ……I scarcely had time to see it, ………gleaming   under the pure white roof …of old calcium ……When I set it down, it hurried ………along the tideline   of the sea, …which was slashing along as usual, ……shouting and hissing ………toward the future,   turning its back …with every tide on the past, ……leaving the shore littered ………every morning   with more ornaments of death— …what a pearly rubble ……from which to choose a house ………like a white flower—   and what a rebellion …to leap into it ……and hold on, ………connecting everything,   the past to the future— …which is of course the miracle— ……which is the only argument there is ………against the sea From House of Light by Mary Oliver