The octopus is a malleable beast, designed to get by in any circumstance

They can camouflage themselves as rocks or ragged bits of seaweed

Or something too dangerous to eat

Besides this talent

They can compress

How many times I wished I were clever enough to escape through some small crack

From that family that was so alien and so intolerable

I made myself as small as I could

I made myself as drab and unnoticeable

As mindless as a piece of rock

The only safe place to draw myself up into was my own head

When they took me so far from the sea