He addressed the pastel
blue, silkscreen octopus,
“I hear your species knows
how to survive in evermore
polluted waters.” He turned
to another wall and addressed
the beige and brown plastic
crab resting on three plastic,
brown, woven mats, “You are
pretty good at filtering out
the pollutants, right?” Then
he asked the wall hangings,
“Are you recyclable?”