Piscatory Precision Poem by gershon hepner

Sea horses’ eggs are brightest red.
A female hippocamp
while mating on the ocean bed
won’t leave them in the damp
upon the bottom of the sea,
but gives them to her male
to fertilize most tenderly,
entwining her long tail
around her lover as they swim,
pre-coitally in bliss,
provocatively blowing him
a hippocampal kiss.
She lines up fifty times or more
with piscatory precision
against his pouch to make quite sure
the eggs in her emission
are fertilized at once by sperm
his cloaca releases,
remaining in his pouch till term,
until gestation ceases.
The eggs which he has fertilized
remain inside his pouch
until the fish are baby-sized
and make him cry out “Ouch! ”
I love the way sea horses mate
but think that I would rather
be high and dry and celibate
than pregnant and a father.

10/28/97