Jellyfish

Realizing his life was accomplishing nothing
he found a simple secret.
He promptly signed up for Iraq
and, like Byron before him, looked for a fitting place to die.
He took his chapbooks with him
and often strapped them inside his vest
like a suicide bomber.
His sweat and fear soaked into the pages.
A testament to his testosterone.
They called him 'Jellyfish' though no one knew why.

One day near Fallujah they were attacked.
He fired above their heads and died smiling,
for he knew the secret.
He died seeing pages flying from his corpse,
but they couldn't read English.
One Iraqi had a weakness for literature
and kept two of the maroon-stained books.
He translated it years later.
Its words spread like a virus into the minds and mouths of many.
A poet-soldier's ideas survived his form - no afterlife necessary.

A biologist outside an island south of Tokyo
tries to understand the riddle of the giant jellies
that swarm and clog the straits of Nippon.
In time he learns the secret:
Death is Dissemination.