O Jelly Totem

Isn’t it nice
to pretend to have a spirit animal?
Aren’t you in love with your imagined
cougar, lion, wolf
or hawk? 

If you discovered
one day that your familiar
was a jellyfish,
would you be as jazzed?
Or would you start
to trail around spinelessly
with your stings
firing at random?

You’d have a whole colony
to relate to then, you realize —
they’re not so much animals
as collectives, you know;

imagine that —
no one identity to call on,
just a faith built upon
the mix and match of tens of thousands
of little pains in the ass.
Maybe even some serious poisoners,
maybe some killers.

How much would you love that?
Jellyfish need partners on our side too,
after all; they may not look as good
on a T-shirt,

but given the evidence,
it’s something you should consider
embracing.