Feral Felis catus walks the line
Paw prints press in Fucus brine
Salt crust coats her calico fur
Dawn breaks through the hull's cold blur
She hunts where Zostera beds meet steel
Roots hold fast in tidal wheel
Calico moves through rusted chain
Life persists through wind and rain
She knows each barnacle by genus name
Balanus balanoides, her hunting game
Mussel shells crack under patient paw
Mycorrhizal threads in sand she saw
She hunts where Zostera beds meet steel
Roots hold fast in tidal wheel
Calico moves through rusted chain
Life persists through wind and rain
Gull cries cut the morning air above
Larus argentatus searches for love
But she moves low through Spartina grass
Photosynthesis in each step she has
She hunts where Zostera beds meet steel
Roots hold fast in tidal wheel
Calico moves through rusted chain
Life persists through wind and rain
Tide turns slow, exposes mudflat floor
She reads the sediment like ancient lore
Nereis diversicolor, protein prize
Survival written in her amber eyes
No sentiment in how she carries on
Just xylem rising with the dawn
No sorrow for the kittens lost to sea
Just phylogeny and memory
Ferry horn cuts low through kelp and brine
She pauses, one paw on the line
Then vanishes in Phragmites stand
Ghost cat returning to the land
She hunts where Zostera beds meet steel
Roots hold fast in tidal wheel
Calico moves through rusted chain
Life persists through wind and rain
Calico at dawn remains
Roots hold fast in morning light
Calico remains in sight
