Ekphrasis

A crab dons a chromatic carapace against a brickwork background that seems to speak to it in pastel whispers. Might it scuttle backward across silent seas of submerged antiquity? (It’s surely joined in with mermaids singing each to each.) From Earth’s abundant calcium carbonate it houses its biological essence, yet its spiritual home seems anchored to the night sky, where gaseous planets and watery worlds remain undiscovered by distant kin on solid ground. Does it dare disturb the universe? If human voices try to wake it, they (not it) will drown.