Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt called for a poem about “a very large thing.” Yesterday, on Twitter, I saw an amazing video of a colossal sturgeon swimming in a Canadian lake. I took my title from the comments, and used the Canadian Encyclopedia entry on sturgeon to create this blackout poem.

Serpent Legend

Large

            Primitive

                           Bony

class

in fresh rivers, lakes

some venture

into brackish water.

An ancient group,

            fossils with long snout

            toothless mouth

            tail, long and slender.

They grow slowly

            attain great size.

Female sturgeon

            spawn

            where the current is

            rapid.

Feed

            on the bottom

            their protruding, sucking

            lips.

Flesh —

            delicious.

            Fetch a high price.

Vulnerable. Declining.

See also Endangered Animals