Hey, why do you call us that?
We Paguroidea are neither
hermits nor really crabs
being very social
and more akin to lobster
than to crabs
We ten-legged shell sheltering
toothless omnivores
are clever
            collaborative
                        and vulnerable
the protection of our
soft
            spiral bellies and tails
                        our uropods
reliant on empties left by
moon snails
             whelks

                        periwinkles
when we can find them
(please leave them on the beach!)
the red among us (Pagurus bernhardus, if you please)
sometimes adorn our shells with an anemone
or two for mutual benefit 

If we could choose
our name for human use
we might like to be recognized
for our amazing scuttle and our
propensity for climbing
our dwelling in mollusk shells
(or plant tubes for the land dwellers) 

And we Decapod Crustaceans
would have you know three things:
#saveusfromplastic!
it’s killing us
#don’tmakeuspets!
that makes us lonely
and die young
we won’t mate in captivity
            fact:
#wecanlivedecadeswild

When it is safe, we come forth
from our shells
our hard right larger pincer
emerging first
then the left
            cheliped
    followed
     by   our
    two   eyes
     on   stalks
two pairs of antennae
           longer ones for feeling
shorter ones for tasting and smelling
three pairs of mouth parts
and two more pairs of legs for walking
we are proud creatures of many pairings!

Think of us as
Collaborative Crustaceans
Environmental Cleansers
who team up for food finding
line up for shell swapping
(though it’s true
we sometimes fight for shells
or steal them from our molting cousins
so again we say,
leave them on the beach!)
red   brown    gray
watch us and leave us
to live our way  

*

uropod: sixth and last pair of appendages of lobsters and related crustaceans, forming part of the tail fan. (uro: tail; pod: foot)

decapod: ten legged (5 pairs of legs)

cheliped: the pair of legs with a pincer-like claw in decapods