I.
The most extensive organism
carnivorous, deciduous
This is the first place in the world
where trees can grow
if you’re starting at the top
and heading down
Circling the globe
is a big ring
of green oxygen
And if a flake of snow catches
the light in right way
you can see signs of life
from space
Some animals, like spirits,
glimpse each other once,
and keep moving
Hunting and praying
apply resin to the site
of the wound
Running though pinecones,
looking through file cabinets
A caribou raises its white arm
signaling a white defeat
Mirror images fight and bump
and sheer and freezing frustration
The injured loser
may not survive
II.
Such a giant green group
gathers together
shrinking
as the camera pans out
Rest me beneath
a giant redwood
and roll me in
with the fog from the sea
My growing time lasts half a year
my growing time
l
long live, my living
lifeless or not
III.
Raise the mountains, raze the trees
birds eggs, or squirrels’ eyes
and babies busy with nothing
families chirp for help
as a thief traipses on
There is a definite number
of mice captured by owls
and no one will ever know
its full sum
First stage of flight
and the ground is no place
General Sherman is as heavy
as ten blue whales
You would be too
if you were the oldest living thing on earth
Great white guards
watch miniatures, creatures
feed them, shield them
some infants
hardly bigger than kittens
Thin antlers, good dads
Moths hatch
at the last of the summer
In the deciduous transformations
we’ll never be
in the same, dream-like state
which is sad;
the world is round but uneven
The hungriest leaf-eaters
get eaten
and so on
Paradise, the area
of no information
Now here is a big leap
IV.
But what’s the worse—
all of the cicadas
could disappear
We never will grow
wings, but we have
further than dawn
to complete the change
Go for it Got for it
gorge yourselves
just this once
in your lifetime
Every 17 years
what is the purpose
fertilizer and fornication
not necessarily
in that order
in the Northern Hemisphere
primordial thrashing
and they’re standing apart
and they’re starting their rut
There is a doe
and the male mounts her
I didn’t know this
but the rarest cats on earth
are living in Russia
Cue the time lapse from the frozen
there’s a flash in forward motion
into the biggest time
of the ground leaves
Fern leaves unfurl like
the oceanic
the octopus
the tentacles
driving small fish
and other creatures
closer to shore
The earth’s whole face
can start blushing
and changing color