THE SEA-TURTLE AND THE SHARK by Melvin B. Tolson.

Strange but true is the story
of the sea-turtle and the shark- the instinctive drive of the weak to survive in the oceanic dark.
Driven,
riven by hunger from abyss to shoal, sometime the shark swallows the sea-turtle whole.
The sly reptilian marine
withdraw, into the shell of his undersea craft,
his leathery head and the rapacious claws
that can rip a rhinoceros’ hide or strip a crocodile to fare-thee-well;
now inside the shark,
the sea-turtle begins the churning seesaw
of his decent into pelagic hell;
then…then with ravenous jaws that cut sheet steel scrap,
the sea-turtle gnaws…and gnaws…and gnaws…his way to freedom,
beyond the vomiting dark, beyond the stomach walls of the shark.

Copyright 1965, Twayne Publishers.

Reference:
Melvin Tolson

Category: Celebration of Blackness,