Around me, skyscrapers of coral  
waved yellow banners
Fish dressed in armor hammered
from the scattered shards of rainbows
Sand Dollars slimy and half-buried,
their purple cloaks made of royal velvet

Dressed for a parade I could not name

Anenome swaying,
twitching
reaching for something
A sandpaper-silk handshake as tendrils hold my palm to examine
and release with a dissatisfied recoil.

Urchins with dangerous halos
slowly moving, clinging
wuills working like fingers to explore

Swarms of fearless minnows
as thick and numerous as summer gnats

Every inch of this blue world saturated
with living minds 

Sea turtles as swift as sparrows
Rays with wings wider than the length of me
Jellies twitching to follow a moon yet to rise. 
Tiny crabs half-glowing with electric blue and yellow claws
Laughing eels with pinprick spots so thicky laid they looked like freckles.

All of them
Curious
Calm
and unafraid