Or the spike
of a channel marker or the
moon, he superintended the demolition of his image in
the water by the wind; he did not strike
 
them at the
time as being different from
any other inhabitant of the water; it was as if he
were a seal in the combined livery
 
of bird plus
snake; it was as if he knew that
the penguins were not fish and as if in their bat blindness, they did not
realize that he was amphibious.

From Observations (The Dial Press, 1924) by Marianne Moore. This poem is in the public domain.