Marine Isopod or Gribble

by Ewen Glass

18 February 2026

If you’re ever feeling out of place gribbles feed on trees but live in sea, marine-pale and many-limbed.

Feeling small? Those millimetric creatures can destroy ships and make of masts exclamation marks.

We all work, letters, numbers in turning, a tempest of chemical processes, what some prefer to call:

the luck of living.

about the author

Ewen Glass (he/him) is a screenwriter and poet from Northern Ireland who lives with two dogs, a tortoise and a body of self-doubt; his poetry has appeared in the likes of Okay Donkey, Maudlin House, HAD, Poetry Scotland and One Art Poetry. Bluesky/X/IG: @ewenglass

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