Raw Earth Ink
spit, mixed with dirt – muddy words flow
Of Octopii, Death and Madness REBLOG
There are places
In the deep dark sea
Where you can find thousands of female octopii
Brooding,
Fiercely defending their precious eggs.
If dinner doesn’t happen by for any particular female,
She won’t eat.
Days will pass with no sustenance;
She starts to go mad,
Acting erratically
With a self-destructive slant:
She might tear her own skin off,
Groom herself obsessively
And snack on her own tentacles,
All the while stroking her eggs,
Sitting on them,
Lovingly caressing them with whispered water,
Staunchly fighting off the urge
To devour them as well.
But when her eggs finally hatch
She will blow them into a plankton cloud
To help ensure their survival.
Then she will die
By organic disassembly
And cellular suicide.
She will only live on in her orphaned offspring,
The females of which will grow to succumb to the exact same fate.
Yet succumb to this fate they do,
Generation after generation,
Without fail —
For the last few hundred million years.
The males don’t fare any better;
After mating once,
The clock starts ticking,
And inevitably stops after a few months.
Then it’s all over for them too.
Less (or more) fortunate males die right after mating,
Enduring a murderously cannibalistic assault by the female;
I’m not sure which manner of dying is worse.
I suppose that this is the cost
Of the continuation of their magnificent species.
Naturally,
They aren’t much into social connection —
It’s just far too complicated to be so.
©TJ at The Lustful Empress blog
17 Comments on “Of Octopii, Death and Madness REBLOG”
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This is facinating!
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Right?!! Empress is always making me think deeper. I love it.
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It’s also educational..I knew nothing about their life cycle before.
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Right?!! Me neither. I just thought they were cool creatures. Which is also crazy because I am so fascinated with the world under the ocean… so I study a lot of it, but realized I had never delved into the octopii realm.
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Thanks for the reblog, Tara. I’m truly flattered. ❤🐙 Is that your artwork? Looks like some of the pieces you’ve done before. Like! Anyway… octopii… or octopuses… are stunning creatures. Intelligent, affectionate, playful, cunning, alien in the coolest ways. I think I found my aquatic spirit animal. Lol
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Yes. That’s part of something I inked… but I thought it was appropriate. 😊
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I recognized your style. I love it. You’re very talented. Thank you again 💋💋💋
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How shall we measure survival, by individual lifespan, or by species, or life itself?
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Indeed! I tend to think it’s all interconnected, so life as a whole.
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I’m reminded of Gregory Bateson’s statement that the unit of evolution is not the individual, nor the family, nor the species, but the ecosystem.
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Yes!! That’s it exactly! At least in my opinion (and apparently his as well).
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Tara Caribou – They die, but continue.
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This is great! I love the octopus they are fascinating and supremely intelligent sea creatures
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I agree. The Empress always writes these deep thoughts like this and buries it under the cloak of “hormones” haha. But I love her thought processes.
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That’s funny :))
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Hello, interesting read. Perhaps neither is worse? The fact that the male and female both live for life and in service for life is quite divine to me (: Thanks for the info
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I think that was the whole point she was making.
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