ZooWeird 80

A doggerel series about odd or little-known animals.

Spotted jellyfish. The beautiful spotted jellyfish is a widely distributed species that occurs throughout the Indian Ocean, China Sea to Japan, and outward over the Pacific to the Fiji Islands. It is also known as the “lagoon jelly”because it occurs in bays, harbors, and lagoons. Some other common names it comes by are the golden medusa and the Papuan jellyfish. M. Papua is a relatively small jelly with a translucent, usually hemispherical, bell with a diameter ranging from 3 to 8 cm. The lagoon jelly has 8 frilled oral arms, rather than tentacles, that have a length that is more or less equal to the bell-radius. (All animal info from http://www.strangeanimals.info/2014/12/the-spotted-jellyfish.html#ixzz4YyqmWfgf)

“You are translucent!” sang the whale.

“And so he is,” sniffed Snotty Snail.

“And thereby, surely, hangs a tale.”

“No, just a tail,” the jellyfish

Then joked. “It is my fondest wish

That each of you becomes a dish!”

The sun was high; he moved toward light—

Preferring it to deep-sea night,

Where things are never—ever—bright.