by Juliana Spahr
Began with a list.
A bird. Reed cormorant.
Added a fish and a monkey. Hingemouth. White throated monkey.
Added because.
Because the six dorsal and anal fins of the hingemouth and its two
teeth too and also its swim bladder like a lung, covered in alveoli.
Because the silvery wings, longish tail, and short head crest of the
reed cormorant.
Because the white throated monkey, with its red belly and its white
legs.Added the phrase the principle of relation.
Because it was with the principle of relation that the Niger Delta came
to teem.
So the hingemouth with its six dorsal and anal fins and its two teeth
too and also its swim bladder like a lung, covered in alveoli, swims.
So the silvery wings, longish tail, and short head crest of the reed
cormorant dives down to considerable depths in the Delta and also
dives to feed, as it tends to do, in more shallow water, bringing slowmoving mormyrids and cichlids to the surface.
So the white throated monkey, with its red belly and its white legs,
bangs objects against the ground, throws sticks.
Then added another bird.
Eurasian spoonbill.
Added a crab and a fish.
Cleistostoma kuwaitense. Mudskipper.
Again added because.
Because the Eurasian spoonbill with its dark legs, occasionally
grunting and trumpeting.
Because the cleistostoma kuwaitense building a semi-permanent
mud hood over the entrance to its burrow.
Because the mudskipper digging a deep burrow then hiding in it
during high tide, a polygonal territory surrounded by dams, and
defended against rivals, yet also shared with digging crabs.Added the phrase the principle of relation.
Because it was with the principle of relation that the Kuwait Bay came
to teem.
So the Eurasian spoonbill with its dark legs, grunts and trumpets,
sweeps the end of its partly opened bill from side to side as it wades
through shallow water.
So the mudskipper builds its burrow beneath the mudflats, defends its
territory, keeps a pool of water so as to also engage in surface
activity.
So the cleistostoma kuwaitense, using the same mud of these mud
flats, builds a semipermanent mud hood.
Then another bird.
Pelican.
Added a mammal and a fish. Bottlenose dolphin. Red snapper.
Returned to because.
Because the gregarious pelican, traveling in flocks.
Because the bottle nose dolphin, remembering and comprehending.
Because the nibbling and the picking of the red snapper with its short,
sharp needle-like teeth.
Returned to principle of relation.Because it was with the principle of relation that the Gulf of Mexico came to teem.
So the gregarious pelican hunts, hunts cooperatively, plunge dives
from high up so as to stun the fish, scoops them up, and then also
breeds, breeds colonially, in trees, bushes, in the ground, around the
gulf.
So the dolphin talks, talks, over thirty distinguishable sounds.
So the red snapper spreads itself out in the artificial reefs of oil platforms, the smaller fish in the upper part of the water column, the
larger in deeper areas.
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