8H Hagfish
8H: Hagfish of the underworld, snot psalm
Hagfish are jawless, eel-like marine creatures, thriving in deep-sea depths (100–6,000 m) for over 300 million years.
With four hearts, a skull but no spine, and a low 1 mmHg blood pressure, they’re built for survival, enduring 36 hours without oxygen and fasting up to 7 months. Their 200 slime glands produce a 10,000x-expanding mucus shroud to choke predators, while they burrow into carrion (like 50-ton whale falls) to feed, absorbing half their meal through their skin. Scorned as “hag-fish,” their slime inspires 500 MPa fibers for sutures, rivaling Kevlar.
They’ve outlasted three mass extinctions, knotting their way through time’s ruins.
8H -> H8.
Whale Fall
Whale (Fall!)
Whale Fall!
Whale (Fall!!)
50 tons whale drops
100-year banquet of rot.
H, hydrogen’s pulse
100 meters, nostril hunts decay.
Eight-knots twist my spine
100 hagfish swarm carrion's call.
Sharks lunge! jaws snap!
200 glands erupt in flood.
10,000 X choking shroud
snot traps jaws, stuffs their mouth.
Burrow deep, rasp flesh
knotted free, we feast in caves of carrion.
We Survive in the cold dark, man.
H,8 mocks your lungs
36 hours, I shun air’s grip.
H, four hearts’ hum
1 millimeter of Hg holds.
Skull, no spine, I bend
sharks bite, blood leaks, I slide.
Pores drink carrion
half my meal seeps through my hide.
Switch sexes in silt
eight-knots scrape my feast.
Prestige is for Peacocks, snot's forever, man.
H8 spurns low hands
janitors, like me, clean rot.
H for hubris clouds
your eyes from my snot’s craft.
500 Mega-Pascal fibers
weave sutures, heal your spines.
yet, 100,000 tons of me fished
my skin, your wallets, yet you H8.
Eight-knots bind strength
empires sink, but we survive.
Navy steals my snot
sprays it for war, yet names me filth.
... Humanity will Fall like all whales do
H8 torches your world
cities collapse, my carrion feast?
H-bomb's, hydrogen’s blast
war’s spark, bones to dust.
Three dooms I've twisted by
Permian, Triassic, K-Pg's ash,
Seven months I can fast
eggs lie years in silt’s clasp.
Eight-knots loop time
your ruins will feed my deep tribe.
6,000 meters down
dark vault holds my knotted reign.
... snot's forever, man
H8 scorns my slime
eight-knots weave eternal.
You name me, hag, fish,
scorn's bitter hook, your death fear's mirror.
Yet in your ruin’s banquet
knotted, I'll feast, and thrive.
... Whale Fall
Whale (Fall!)
Whale Fall!!
Whale (Fall!!)
This is the 8th animal in the memory music project.