Barnacles

Published in Stick Figure Poetry Issue #14 Summer2024

Barnacles, are tiny crustaceans that build their shells onto undersea surfaces,
This can be:
rocks
ships
even giant blue whales.
They are harmless
most of the time.

However, sometimes barnacles
lodge themselves into the joints of lobsters or sea turtles.
As the barnacle grows
they prevent the joint from moving
Slowing,
Starving,
and eventually killing their host.

Some days I am the whale
unbothered and happy
Somedays I am the  crab
suffocating in my own skin

But more often than not
I feel like the barnacle
just trying to survive,
growing in the weak points of other people’s lives.

I would be harmless if I wasn’t so out of place,
but I wedge myself in and if you let me grow,
I will only ever slow you down.take your ability to eat
and eventually starve you..

I am so afraid that one day you will notice and pull me loose.