Poems (Marianne Moore)/TALISMAN

by Marianne Moore

TALISMAN

Under a splintered mast,
torn from ship and cast
    near her hull,

a stumbling shepherd found
embedded in the ground,
    a sea-gull

of lapis lazuli,
a scarab of the sea,
    with wings spread—

curling its coral feet,
parting its beak to greet
    men long dead.