by Kevin T McEneaney
I, who sang of astronomy and kindness,
now sing manifold virtues of the slug,
a shell-less terrestrial gastropod—
a form of crawling, slouching mollusc,
a polyphyletic category
subject to crass and ignorant insults,
like “Why are you behaving like a slug
with your dirty feet mauling the clean couch?”
*
Slugs produce slime trails, useful for mating.
Carnivore slugs hunt by their slime trails….
The body mucus of a slug protects,
since it makes it difficult for a bird
to pick it up with its proboscis beak.
*
When it comes to gardening, I am a slug….
