The Minimal
by Theodore RoethkeOriginal Language English
I study the lives on a leaf: the little
Sleepers, numb nudgers in cold dimensions.
Beetles in caves, newts, stone-deaf fishes,
Lice tethered to long limp subterranean weeds,
Squirmers in bogs.
And bacterial creepers
Wriggling through wounds
Like elvers in ponds,
Their wan mouths kissing the warm sutures,
Cleaning and caressing,
Creeping and healing.
-- from Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty, Edited by Alan Jacobs |
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