The marine Aquarium at Macduff in Aberdeenshire shows

In video how it returns to the North Sea a Lesser Octopus

Which has been resident with it for six months, the maximum

Time they will keep this animal away from its underwater home

After which they will replace it with another, enabling visitors

To learn that the sphere that looks like a head is a trickster

Body which holds most of its organs, but only one of its brains.

The other eight are in its arms, or legs, which can maintain

Independent action. Easily spotted children envy the camouflage

Generated by changing colour and the freedom to dodge

Pursuers by elongating the body to slip through a keyhole.

Alien in physique it can enjoy human touch and be cajoled

To play games. In the wild it is often alone in its den, so is not

Unhappy in a tank cleaned every day, with food provided. Squat

When still, it is graceful in movement as now it propels itself away

From its minder back into its true home. In the time of its captivity

Thousands of humans have been killed in Putin’s war, Israel’s slaughter

Continues in Gaza, Trump threatens Greenland, ground that ought to

be protceted is polluted, life on earth abused, yet one lesser octopus

May remember its six months with human beings in Macduff as glorious.