No position to be in, vertebrate
lips stick together standing
up. Does the female possess 

the male, or does he just swim
upside down? That damned secretion is used 

for balance. Incapable of flight—
two hundred eggs still 

to be transferred. If only
propulsion ended here. 

(found poem from Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé, edited by Andy Masaki Bellows and Marina McDougall with Brigitte Berg)