by Angela Sucich
A neon green solar-powered slug that lives underwater is the winner of the increasingly popular Invertebrate of the Year competition run by the Guardian. The leaf sheep, Costasiella kuroshimae, triumphed in the global ballot after hundreds of thousands of readers around the world read about and shared their appreciation for the spineless creatures who make up the majority of animal life on Earth. Announcing the winner, the broadcaster and environmental campaigner Chris Packham said: “It’s very, very beautiful but also very smart too. It harvests photosynthetic material from the algae it feeds upon and builds its own solar panels.” — The Guardian, August 20, 2026
We need you right neon-now, leaf sheep.
Glowing your purloined sustainability,
loving your undeniable sea slug self.
Don’t dim on our account,
we’re here for the freak show.
Can’t pass up a contest, an elimination
round. Which one will win this time?
The polls have spoken.
It was closer than we’d like.
But your shock of green leaves,
appendages, cerata, etcetera,
that normally let you blend in,
are waving at us as you come out on top.
Your ovine face munching on photosynthetic
algae as you build your own energy
palace. You’re a solar, solo FU
to the world, if not its mascot.
Not chosen for cuteness but to cut
to the chase: We all want something
to love, to distract, to distance, to despise.
To read into your kleptoplastic grazing,
stealing of shine, hermaphroditic egg-laying,
our own pride and loathing. A sheep’s
an easy metaphor to talk about flock
behavior, flock cameras, information
gathered, animals herded even as the algae
disappears. To be an invertebrate that wins
the game is to answer from its gut
a question: Do swallowed chloroplasts
know whose body they’re lighting up?
Angela Sucich's poems appear or are forthcoming in RHINO, Nimrod, Southern Humanities Review, Consequence, and SWWIM. She was honorably mentioned for the Pablo Neruda Prize (2021) and Francine Ringold Award (2020). A poet with a PhD in Medieval Literature, Sucich published a chapbook, Illuminated Creatures (Finishing Line, 2023), which won the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. She lives in Leavenworth, Washington, with her husband and daughter.
