ANIMALS OF THE EARTH

The snail advances with tenacity

so time may raise its kingdom with the slime

that spreads across the ground. And if a tree is born

it’s through its resin that death infiltrates

the guilelessness of animals, its shadow.

They cannot know that the snail’s antennae

foresee each shipwreck before the fog

overflies the islands and they die through their eyes,

bodies still writhing on the branches.

Animals see within.

They live to the last clot of blood and then the sap

of the tree lavishes itself upon the mantle of the earth,

animating the tiny particles they have become.

Souls descend. That is why the world never ends.