“A rare fossil preserved a squid attack from 200 million years ago…”
— Business Insider, May 9, 2020
A fossil testifies
the oldest record of murder:
a squid with a fish in its beak.
A deep-sea slaughter caught—petrified—red-tentacled.
Motive: hunger.
Cause of death:
devouring for one
and asphyxiation for the other.
They say the cephalopod’s greed
took it to its grave.
In one version,
it literally bit more than it could chew
and choked.
In the other, the predator,
euphoric to savor its fresh dish without threat of sharing,
sank to an ocean depth
too scant of oxygen.
Summers swell
voracious with their heat
and lick polar caps
into slush that in turn feeds
the engorging seas. Will our own
blind consumerism
hook us in the end?
Our violent ignorance
framed in so blissful
mid-bite.
