Coconut Octopus.O. marginatus BY JOHN HOPPENTHALER
of an octopus. marginatus dwells among sunken coconuts, more than 50 feet deep, hiding sometimes in their shells by drawing two halves around its body. When faced with danger, it wraps six arms around itself and backpedals away on a pair, camouflaged, innocent coconut bob-bobbing along. Camouflaged, eluding predators with admirable stealth—shape- shifter—the suckered treads of its fluid-filled arms rolling slowly over ocean bottom, past sunken shipwrecks, intrusive snorklers who dive around the coastline of Indonesia. What glorious hiding, so utterly naked and in open sight! Such stealthy hiding can excite, though, really, the ingenious camouflage of marginatus is stereotyped, an inherent moving around requiring no feedback from the brain. The shape, color, not more than an oblivious twitch of nerves, sunken coconuts a coincidence of seascape to which it adjusts. Armed only with primal behavior coded into the ganglia of each arm, it could care less about the potential thrill of its hiding. Ignorance, if not bliss. I'm looking hard at my face: sunken blue eyes, tidal drift of hairline, the graying camouflage of a beard. My fantasies are all about being in better shape, anxious moments spent realizing that I've been floating around a very long time. Every creature in the food chain is surrounded by gourmands and midnight snackers, swollen armies of gluttonous neighbors whose grotesque shapes mirror the intensity of their desire. Here I am, hiding out in the flotsam of suburbia. I'm camouflaged as pocket lint, later as a soul who knows how low to sink, how thrilling it is to buoy among windfallen coconuts. At the kitchen sink, I'm preparing octopus while a lover seems still around to enjoy it; she's curled up on the sofa, camouflaged: comfy bolster, shadow. I could hold her in my arms. Remove ink sac, eyes, and teeth. Clean well. "Oh, hide from me, will you?" Place in a pot; simmer till tender. "Oh, shapely, shapely. Sunken treasure; seductress." Cut the eight arms into bite-sized pieces. Around every corner, she's hiding there. In the coconut cream, camouflaged, roiling, assuming another shape.
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