it doesn’t take much we’ve not come as far as we presume

after all my uncle walks on his knuckles rising giggles from the three foot tall crowds

we have the technology all tools to teach us this baseline of being-

a care for how word is reached and received

a warmth of attention at all hours of the day

a detailed giving of energy not surrendered for anything other

than death

then death

my most heartened realizations are this

when I am best I do not know myself

are the birds this naive never seeing their beak collecting the satisfaction of their body

or the squirrels we say squirreling away do they do so sightless of the long arms

the happy chirping and twitting that is their own throat

when I stand before my most favored treasures the skin and skim of surface delights

the touch is this me surrendered abstractly to the nature of my origins

the will to be closer to the likes of the animal

me