The Breaking of the Shells

An Ode in Seven Quatrains.

It is the time so soon indeed
Of the breaking of the shells
Child among the sand and weed
Feet awet of salty swells

On waters raised the cosmic berth
Our own old salty teller tells
On water vessel runs of earth
For the breaking of the shells

A small crustacean flees in fears
Fearing tolling of the bells
Telling crack of sound in ears
In the breaking of the shells

A mollusk buries hiding flesh
For its pearls is digging wells
But water works a rising mesh
With the breaking of the shells

The son who bears the wood for home
Set aside for seaside spells
Does his father's order's come
At the breaking of the shells

Hiding thing as beast betwixt
Calcified of suffered cells
In a blow so swift is fix'd
Through the breaking of the shells

Now to home the child is bound
Fair through air of salty smells
In this way the lost are found
In the breaking of the shells.