John Glenday

I love you as I love the Hatchetfish, the Allmouth, the Angler, the Sawbelly and Wolf-eel, the Stoplight Loosejaw, the Fangtooth;

all our sweet bathypelagic ones, and especially those too terrible or sly even for Latin names; who saddle their menfolk to the vagina’s hide

like scorched purses, stiff with seed; whom God built to trawl endless cathedrals of darkness, their bland eyes...

after G.W. Steller

These beasts are four fathoms long, but perfectly gentle. They roam the shallower waters like sea-cattle

and graze on the waving flags of kelp. At the slightest wound their innards will flop

out with a great hissing sound, but they haven’t yet grown to fear mankind:

no matter how many of their number might be killed, they never try to swim away...