by Katie Antony
The sun was shining on the sea,
And then it shone no more;
For in the sky there rose a cloud
That swirled like none before—
And all the oysters without cars
Just huddled on the shore.
For those with pearls already fled
To higher ground than “thou”;
So when the brine waves pierced the walls
And pressed against the bough,
The oysters Walrus cared about
Were safe from this storm’s plow.
The huddled oysters listened
To the wind and then the waves,
And saw their neighbors choking
And swallowed-up in staves—
They climbed onto their rooftops
To seek a carpenter that saves.
Katie Antony is currently a third year student at the University of Rochester. She wrote "Oysters," which draws heavily from the allegory established by Lewis Carroll in "The Walrus and the Carpenter," following a trip to New Orleans intended to document peoples' return to "normalcy" after Hurricane Katrina.