Dug up a shell
gills purple and blue.

Steeped in signs
a lesson in hoodoo.

Worms in the marrow
holy inscrutable.

Gauntlet at brinks
throws it down.

Lofty wound up
with passions unbound. 

Cryptic and smeltery
subversively amazed. 

Panicky and stoic
at censure of your gaze.