The Caterpillar
(2024)
The caterpillar is known to those at the far reaches of the desert
as the bearer of a water so crystalline
microscopic cuts of
love despair hope jealousy
journey through the rivulets of your temporary body
the universe bestowed at the beginning,
when water was not yet formed,
sand was not yet warmed,
and the touch of an angel said: You are you now.
The caterpillar is known to those at the far reaches of the sea
as the bearer of a sun so radiant
all reflection is one
the water the sky the skin
blindness as see
the tadpole and the mountain lion the same tree,
the tree that when formed said: You am I now.
the tree that when grown said: I am you.
The caterpillar is known to those in the depths of the night
as the bearer of the stars
a million lives whose final exhale was heard before their guidance
brought the wayward soul home
light dark light dark light
when three times the celestial and the terrestrial were not two but
one, the beginning
two, on the shaded crescent leaf, and
three, in you.
The caterpillar is known to those at the end of the night,
when the stars last exhale and the peonies first inhale,
as the bearer of the wind
that rises like the ocean and falls like a flower,
and picks up each speck of dust,
to set it down
again, and again