Ohio in November 

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how ancient is it,
smooth skin with
smooth, irregular ridges and shallows,
hole worn through one side to the other
and chipped around the opening
and whiter than the rest where worn
some underlayer revealed through sand and force rubbed clean to the surface
and the whole thing, cupping sand and salt water pulled up from the bottom to the shore
from the shore to my hand
to Ohio in November. 

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I am holding an exoskeleton. some creature lived a life
all in the sea and died there too and I am holding the remains.
I collected them on the shore in the summer I met you. 

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it will snow here soon.
on some shore it is warm in November.
in November, two creatures are making a home on the ocean floor.