The Paper Nautilus

For authorities whose hopesare shaped by mercenaries?   Writers entrapped by   teatime fame and bycommuters' comforts?  Not for these   the paper nautilus   constructs her thin glass shell.   Giving her perishablesouvenir of hope, a dull   white outside and smooth-   edged inner surfaceglossy as the sea, the watchful   maker of it guards it   day and night; she scarcely   eats until the eggs are hatched.

Buried eight-fold in her eight   arms, for she is in   a sense a devil-fish, her glass ram'shorn-cradled freight   is hid but is not crushed;   as Hercules, bitten   by a crab loyal to the hydra,was hindered to succeed,   the intensively   watched eggs coming fromthe shell free it when they are freed,—   leaving its wasp-nest flaws   of white on white, and close-   laid Ionic chiton-foldslike the lines in the mane of   a Parthenon horse,   round which the arms hadwound themselves as if they knew love   is the only fortress   strong enough to trust to.