Carcinisation

a comforting thought: that

the arc of the moral universe

is long, but it appears to bend

towards crabs. one day, our

exoskeletons will protect us

from the rain, and from the end;

as the seas rise and fall, we will

find homes in the tide pools, or in

the remnants of buildings left empty

by humans. we will build

a better world, as crabs; they say

crabs can’t feel pain. we’ll never

hurt, or perhaps we won’t believe

convenient claims which salve

our guilt over boiling creatures alive.

mm

Author: Ellie Milne-Brown

Ellie Milne-Brown is a writer and student whose poetry has been featured in Transcribed: An Anthology of Trans Writing (Polari, 2020). She recently completed an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture, and her time is divided between working in higher education administration, contemplating all the emails she needs to send, and writing a newsletter about the media she loves called tiny mammal kingdom.

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