The “Fairy Shrimp” and Kafka

This unusual drawing, hangs on the wall in Marianne Moore’s living room just to the left of the fireplace. No, it is not a Sendak drawing. It is by another illustrator, Robert Andrew Parker.
Parker illustrated eight of Moore’s poems for a limited edition book (only 195 copies were printed) published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1962. Each edition was signed by Moore and Parker and included ten hand colored illustrations.

Like Moore, Parker’s favorite artistic subject matter was animals. Moore calls the subject of this drawing a ”fairy shrimp” in a letter to Robert Andrew Parker, June 9, 1958.

Above the “fairy shrimp” appears a handwritten inscription in German. It’s relevance to the drawing below is not clear to me and maybe purely absurdist. It is an excerpt from Franz Kafka’s book Amerika.
Translation: When the 16-year-old Karl Robmann was sent to America by his poor parents because a maid seduced him and had a child by him, he arrived in a slow-moving ship in the port of New York. When he landed, he saw the Statue of Liberty, which he had seen from a distance, in a stronger sunlight.