The Matamata
Editorial Introduction. — This section is devoted to poetry involving turtles, representing either reprinted previously published or new unpublished material. We encourage our readers to submit poetry or songs for consideration, either their own material or work by other authors. Poems may be submitted to Anders G.J. Rhodin at Chelonian Research Foundation, E-mail: RhodinCRF@aol.com.
Our desire is to share with our readers the beauty and wonder of turtles as expressed through the art of the poem or song. In the sense that the relationship between man and turtles is multifaceted, so too is turtle poetry. The poems we publish here will reflect that complexity, from poems of pure admiration for the creatures themselves to others reflecting the utilization of turtles and their products. Some poems will reflect man's use of the turtle for sustenance, others will stress man's need to preserve and protect turtles. Some will deal with our emotional interactions with turtles, others will treat turtles light-heartedly or with seeming disrespect, but all will hopefully help us to better understand both the human and the chelonian condition, and remind us that the turtle holds a sacred place in all our hearts.
The Matamata 1
Thomas Hale Stubbs
The creature lies in murky streams
Divesting victims of their dreams.
It stares ahead with beady eyes
That never see the sun-filled skies…
The leering smile, the roughened shell
Are features straight from Dante's Hell!
Its aspect, from mythology
Has roots in teratology.
This thing that moves along unseen
Through muddy waters never clear
Has senses that are ever keen,
Has powers that the wise must fear.
What is this dismal denizen
That leaves a trail of sloughing skin?
If you don't know by now, you oughta
Editorial Comment. — Tom Stubbs, who unfortunately died young in 1979, was a very good friend of Peter Pritchard and wrote this poem for him. Tom welcomed and helped Peter adapt to his new home in the USA after he arrived from England to pursue his Ph.D. under Archie Carr at the University of Florida. He was an avid herpetologist and turtle enthusiast and conservationist, who earned a Master's degree in journalism and communications from the University of Florida in 1973, with a thesis entitled “Communicating Concern for Wildlife Conservation to an Apathetic Public”. Also an excellent photographer, he traveled extensively with Peter to South America, including Guyana, where he participated in sea turtle surveys and other turtle adventures—and when Peter and his wife Sibille had their second son, Dominic, they chose Tom as his honored godfather. This poem about matamata turtles (Chelus fimbriata) by Stubbs does wonderful justice to their bizarre appearance. Matamatas are found in Guyana, and Peter once pulled 15 of these “dismal denizens” from a single small pond. Their rapid gape-and-suck feeding technique is a wonder to behold as they suddenly inhale small fish swimming too close to their rough camouflaged shells and wide “leering” jaws. Long ago, I had a matamata for a pet that I named Hoover in descriptive honor of this amazing vacuum-like feeding mechanism. For more detailed information and photos of this bizarre chelid turtle, see the thorough species account written by Pritchard in our monograph series Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises (www.iucn-tftsg.org/chelus-fimbriata-020/).
