Song-Riddle: Asian Box Turtle

Questions for a zoologist

starting with anatomy

        concluding with love:

Is a turtle’s skin loaned?

True or false: weight of his shell

        is lighter

        than the light of drums.

What is the under-shell

and is it tough as a mangrove?

Can he see through his shell-box?

Can he see out the rear

                        to this sea of ours?

Does he exist in the order of things?

How does life begin, when does it end

            and is that good or evil?

Yellow margin over a cuttlebone,

domed carapace

        is it a lonely world

of sow bugs, cutworms, and God?