26.7.09

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As I was walking the beach on Lake Ontario, I came upon this creature, this crayfish/crawfish/crawdad—what other names do they have? It was 6-7 inches long and stood up as high as possible, claws and antennae waving to make itself look bigger than that. It was headed to the surf and, when it got there, it let it the water take it, tumbling past the waves' breaking point, swimming away quickly. Gone. Funny what one finds on beaches.

2 comments:

annecopeland said...

Ummm, that is a crawdad, also known as a fresh water lobster. Yes, they cook up just like lobsters and are very tasty if you get enough of them. We were catching them unintentionally at a lake once when they kept clinging onto the bait, so we pulled them up and put them into the bucket, and pretty soon we had a nice dinner. Now all our camp neighbors thought we were wierd till we got them cooked up, and then they all wanted some. They turn bright red and might be compared to shrimp-size lobsters, though some can get quite a bit bigger. Peace and many blessings, Annie

Melissa Holbrook Pierson said...

Sometimes you look at something for what it is, in its individuality, and then watch it go back to its life. And sometimes you consume it, as if it existed only for you.

Not making a comment on the food chain in general, or where we are on it, or even on the previous commenter's status. Just an observation. And it seems to me, Ren, that in this instance, you allowed that crawdad his full "humanity" by merely watching--not reducing him to dinner.