"Scallop," which is of course a type
of sea animal with a shell that you find sometimes
on mountaintops in California.
On a mountaintop, miles from the sea, we found a shell.
And saw how the sea had left the land rolled in waves.
This shell, a million years old, with the animal skin
dried to its back and bleached white as old cow bones.
Yet, still the luster orient and pearl caught in the flanges.
The same that Venus rode on when she crossed the sea.
And in the corner, the same pink as in the corner of your eyes.