A Layer Beneath Name
not kitten, puppy or squirrel but
have you ever watched an insect eat?
i mean really, have you watched it eat?
it holds the morsel of rice or bread,
just like you or me
and it brings it closer to its little mouth
or else it moves closer to its desire,
like we would, say, gravitate forward
to court a burger sized for Gulliver
and the morsel rocks gently —
back and forth — unsteady as the
little creature works it for food
in watching the cockroach eat,
have you perceived its hunger?
(now i’ve named it; can you follow?)
it eats because it’s hungry,
it’s hungry because it feels
just like you or me
have you seen it hold the crumb?
i hadn’t either, not until today
i was a vistor, washing a mug
and i stood there, transfixed
as this countertop squirrel
lay hold of its precious nut,
a day-old piece of cooked rice
and it noticed me looking
i know because it started to run
and slowed, looked up and stopped
feeling my energy, my curiosity,
my wonder and not any animosity
the little one felt safe enough to feed
before me, to offer me its vulnerability
and so it resumed to put its head down
and bring the grain to its little face
have you ever watched a cockroach
assess risk like a soldier on the field?
i hadn’t either, not until today
and this cockroach was right
i was there to watch and marvel
at nature being nature;
at the pivoting of the rice grain,
and its gradual diminishing;
at the transfer of mass
from a grain of rice
to the belly of a helpless insect,
which we seldom see for its name
“cockroach!” quick, kill! quick, run!
quick, dirty! quick, scurry away!
no, no more dirty than any one of us
and no less feeling or hungry, either
slow down instead, and watch
watch a small creature hunger,
watch a small creature feed
watch it assess risk, and watch it,
if you will, choose to trust you
your writer and observer
ends this story here, with but a wish:
neither make faces now or scurry,
saying some idiot poet wrote of roach
nor speak of the poet’s gentle soul,
ascribing away your own softness
not that or that, no, but you yourself
slow down next time, stop and look
nay, don’t only look, but try to see
what you, yourself, may feel
a layer beneath the surface,
where all manifests as all
— esm
