On the Small Toe

They are the most innocent

of all the body,

the toes

like the blind wasp infants

in the nest of darkness

not quite ever seeming

most alive

to bear the weight they do,

the smallest one hardly without

a hint of claw

or even finger of an ape.

You could almost believe

there is no evolution

but that we are returning

to a kind of grace

in this life: Oh god, or sky creature,

or earth, whatever of creation is there,

thank you for this one

body part that sees so fortunately little

but bears so much

hiding there in the dark.

It doesn’t need to turn an eye

or ear. It is already a mystic in a cave,

in animal skin.

Little does it care for miracles.

It doesn’t even want to move by itself,

old, old grandmother

preparing in time to leave the body.