Spotted Whelk

Chipped shell on the dash,
Bought from a gift shop
In Costa Rica

By somebody else,
Never having been
To Costa Rica

Yourself. It belonged
To an old species
Never left ocean

Not in a hundred,
Not in five hundred
Million years or more.

It’s a pretty shell,
Even with that crack
And no life in it.

After all those years,
Those generations,
It’s information,

Doesn’t need feeding,
Which means that it can
Go anywhere now.