Growing Pains / She as We Is Learning
A sound from underfoot,
squeaking, chitinous,
a cockroach like creature,
his brown shell,
antennae radaring the air.
ㅤ
Suddenly, I imagine him growing,
the size of me, larger, a whole room,
would he eat me? Take me into his mandibles,
as inconsequentially as a twig, a morsel,
no malice, just the prerogative of nature:
Matter and hunger and death.
ㅤ
In the street, the smell of pine,
someone speaks.
ㅤ
“You are my best creation” the voice of nature says,
talking of us all,
“I am learning
with you”,
“You are softer creatures”,
and I think of how I considered the roach,
cared for my almost stepping on him,
wondered this chain of thought,
“Before I was raw, elemental, matter and death,
twig and morsel”
now I see her, figuring out a new sophistication,
a new intricacy,
through us.