she sells sea snails on the sea floor

the dolls will drop
like octopi
down to the ocean floor

their gauzy dresses
lifting like lids,
water-puffed

everything is dreamy
in these fantastic clouds:
almost nacreous

dark & hard on the outside,
shell-shone and iridescent
on the inside

soft bodies swirling
down like faeries or queens
in the fading underwater light.