Genus Ariolimax!
You are North America’s largest land mollusk.
With two sets of tentacles —
the bottom two tentacles for feeling and smelling,
the upper tentacles with eye spots that
can move independently to scan for danger —
and a mouth on the bottom of your head,
you travel up to 6.5 inches a minute,
scouring the forest floor for anything to eat.
Ariolimax columbianus!
Traveller of Pacific Northwest,
you thrive in the damp forest floor.
You have but one lung (on the right side)
and a body coated in slime
to prevent dehydration.
Your slime is neither solid, nor liquid.
It is a a liquid crystal,
making you a gem of a forest dweller.
booksandbassets 
Entertaining, educational… Thanks for the enthusiastic biology lesson in verse, and welcome home!
In twenty+ years of living in the Pacific NW, I’ve never gotten used to the giant slugs that one can encounter. You’ve given me some facts I never knew . . . just one lung? Maybe I can look at them with a bit of wonder & less revulsion the next time we meet.
Lots of information packed into a few well written lines. Thanks for the lesson. These are things I did not know.
This is a thoughtful, compact, “mini-lesson” on banana slugs with just the right touch of humor to keep the reader engaged. I especially enjoyed the “body coated in slime” descriptor as I’m sure students will, too!
Great poem full of information! Thanks for sharing. I’m not sure I want to meet a banana slug but it was interesting to learn about them.,