Merry Christmas from UNdertheC! In blog tradition, we’re kicking off our holiday hiatus with a poem. (For more, check out Kelsey Ellis’ versions of Christmas classics, updated for grad students: The Twelve Days of Christmas and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.) See you in 2016!
A Bioluminescent Christmas
Below the grey Atlantic waves,
a starfish watched the sunlight fade
earlier with every night,
and knew that Christmas was in sight.
The starfish had one Christmas dream:
to see the bioluminescence gleam.
And so he left his rocky bight
in pursuit of those Christmas lights.
Now starfish, you already know,
move very, very, very slow,
and soon he found, without a lift,
he’d never make the twenty-fifth.
He saw an octopus and asked her
for a ride: it’d be a faster
journey in the wintry weather
if they traveled there together.
The octopus scooped up her friend
in arms and started off again.
They glided through the icy sea,
and reached the bay on Christmas Eve.
And just in time! Like falling snow
reflects the light, it was aglow
with algae twinkling blue and green
against a backdrop dark, serene.
The starfish marveled, tremulous,
then turned back to the octopus.
“I only wish I could repay
the joy I feel from this display.”
The cephalopod shook her head.
“Sometimes you can’t,” she gently said,
“And must embody gratitude
by brightening your attitude.”
“But,” she carried on, “I see
there’s something missing on their tree.”
And so it was: bedecked elsewhere,
the very top of it was bare.
The starfish beamed, seeing his chance,
and jumped atop the highest branch.
The scene completed festively:
“Merry Christmas to all, under the sea!”
UNder the C 
