For as long as she lived she lived

For as long as she lived she lived
inside the shade and shelter of this
shell now bleached grubby white
but then greenish dabbed black
and scarred chipped unbroken
by the gigantic effort to be alive
until the time came and the body
spent by the same effort slipped
out from its house and vanished
into the sea lanes and sea courts
made of uncountable dark atoms
leaving no not an angel naturally
not even a ghost but a sort of boat
a coracle where we launch ourselves.