Velella velella

Velella! velella,

let me get my camera.

so cosmopolitan your colony,

you reflect an eerie symphony,

fringing beach walks purplish-blue.

by-the-wind sailors carried free,

rafts at the mercy of the sea. 

Velella velella,

tiny concentric sails, I bid you ado. 

a song on thin cellophane

caught on the breeze’s riff,

an engineering marvel in a wind shift.

hydrozoan dilemma on the swell,

teacups with tentacles, strand upwell.