{"id":2870,"date":"2022-11-29T19:07:58","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T23:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=2870"},"modified":"2022-11-29T19:07:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T23:07:58","slug":"crab-canon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/poetry-archive\/crab-canon\/","title":{"rendered":"Crab Canon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Painting

by Luke Manning<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Crab Canon<\/b><\/h1>\n

Michael Waterson<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was born in the month of the crab,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

so I know how life goes sideways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the myth, on a mission for Hera,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Karkinos, a crab, attacks her stepson Herakles.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Devotion to the goddess gets the crustacean\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

crushed under the strongman\u2019s heel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To honor his courage, Hera transmogrifies her crusty pet\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to a cluster of stars scuttling across the sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Astrology tells me this connect-the-dots cartoon\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

colors my nature. Tracing the silhouette\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of my spirit, I can\u2019t deny my heart\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

is often in retreat, that I suffer crab mentality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A telescope reveals a horoscope\u2019s shell game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born from the womb of suns,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

nebulous neuronets are coded\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to configure familiar features, a trait\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

that led Hippocrates to tag a tumor <\/span>cancer<\/span><\/i>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

the crabby queen\u2019s jealousy metastasized.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some horoscopes dub my birth sign <\/span>Moonchild<\/span><\/i>,<\/span><\/p>\n

rather than name the decapod\u2019s dread genus.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was born in the month of the crab,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

whose milky stars still nurse imagination.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Waterson<\/b> is a retired journalist originally from Pittsburgh PA. His career includes stints as a wildland firefighter, San Francisco taxi driver and wine educator. He earned a BA from San Francisco State and an MFA from Mills College. His poems have appeared in numerous online and print journals, including <\/span>California Quarterly<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Cathexis Northwest<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>The Bookends Review<\/span><\/i>. His collection, <\/span>Cosmology of Heaven and Hell<\/span><\/i>, was recently published by The Poetry Box: <\/span>thepoetrybox.com\/bookstore\/cosmology-heaven-hell<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Luke Manning<\/b> is a Digital Illustrator and Fine Artist from Baltimore City, Maryland. His art tells an intimate story on relation with one\u2019s own body and sensuality. His work also details an exploration on interpersonal relationships and themes on sexuality and identity.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Crab Canon Michael Waterson   I was born in the month of the crab,\u00a0 so I know how life goes sideways.\u00a0   In the myth, on a mission for Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5788,"featured_media":0,"parent":1261,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3154,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2870\/revisions\/3154"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}