Crayfish

Delicacy. Black legged, holding stalk eyes,
its progress up the weir is tentative,
like a boxer sidling away fugitive
from an unseen threat. The water eddies
under, a swollen claw swaying in the air
til a surge flips it over on its side
and carries it, flow-ward, down the concrete slide,
as would have happened had we not been there.
Swallow see-saws interlace the autumn dusk.
Our silence indicates no closeness, but
a gathering far-off frost, a summer's husk.
I wonder whether suffering has closure,
a neat end-point, or whether there's just
crayfish, crawling up the empty weir, again.

Craw"fish` (kr?"f?sh`), Cray"fish` (kr?"f?sh`), n.; pl. -fishes or -fish. [Corrupted fr. OE. crevis, creves, OF. crevice, F. crevisse, fr. OHG. krebiz crab, G. krebs. See Crab. The ending -fish arose from confusion with E. fish.] Zool.

Any crustacean of the family Astacidae, resembling the lobster, but smaller, and found in fresh waters. Crawfishes are esteemed very delicate food both in Europe and America. The North American species are numerous and mostly belong to the genus Cambarus. The blind crawfish of the Mamoth Cave is Cambarus pellucidus. The common European species is Astacus fluviatilis.

© Webster 1913.

Cray"fish (kr?"f?sh), n. Zool.

See Crawfish.

© Webster 1913.