The Twelfth Escape 

in which Gilda Sheen emerges from the tank, Girlarium

 at and imprisons her keeper Joseph Q. Youmans of The

 Aquariums at Anemone.

Clamber up flesh dangling from the high hatch —

his knuckles straighten, only nails catch. Your 

adrenaline spurs — drop him fast.  Spring, scratch

surface, dry — the distance seemed so vast for 

those months marooned beneath his room.

Emerge emboldened from your salt water

tomb.  Looming fleetingly over the doomed 

Svengali swimming savagely, squatter 

in some artificial sea he designed

even its winding lock.  You turn it twice. 

Shake yourself from shock. Servants soon will  find

you here, uncaged inside a paradise 

from which you must disappear with haste—

a twelfth chance for escape you will not waste.