The Natural World

The day the hurricane hit New Orleans
all that morning I noticed
these creatures from
the natural world
throwing themselves across my
path, as if in panic and
warning

at the train station, the
praying mantis
that climbed up my wife’s leg
and into her
hair

he fell on the ground and
we rescued him with
a timetable and
set him in the
grass

at work, strung between the
bars of a stair’s railing,
the gigantic spider
web, the sun
hitting the dew at an angle that
revealed the intricacy of
its design

I stood for a moment, admiring
it and the way it seemed
so strong and
yet, I knew I could easily
thrust my hand in and collapse
its symmetry

in the hallway, the tiny strange
centipedes that moved
across the carpet
“what is that?” someone
asked. no one had ever
seen them before

I think of them all now
especially that delicate
web with its
deception of permanence
so easily
broken

the natural world
and its casual
cruelty

our stick arms
folded
in prayer

let us not be crushed
let us not be broken
let us not be killed

voice of
desperation, may you
be apprehended

may you break the silence

bridge the gap

between yourselves and
these
new gods