We present this work in honor of the poet’s 40th birthday.

 

Sometimes I wonder if bacteria pray.
Swim along their host and wonder where they came from.
Thank the body where they live for the warmth they call home.
Mourn the death of their loved ones when their time is up or when the medicine works or when their host dies.
I wonder if the bad bacteria make war with the good, if they can tell the difference.
If there are battles for areas of skin, for food.
If the famine of cleanliness wipes out entire colonies.
If they wonder where sanitizer comes from.
See immunity as evolution.
Rejoice in tolerance for antibiotics, claim death of weaker varieties as natural selection.
I wonder if bacteria come in race, have hierarchy, call the stronger ones leader,follow them blindly
Can see outside the body, know we are aware of their presence, feel guilty when we medicate and obliterate them.
Preach that we know which ones we punish, \try to change the ones they blame.
I wonder if they call us God. Their big world a dot, a crevice, a membrane.
We are giant and powerful and almighty
I wonder if they know we are smaller than so much else. Fallible.
Just as fragile as they are, just as mortal.
That we call the space we live on earth, universe.
That we are born, and die, and damage and fight and love and prey and kill and cleanse.
That we are small beings in huge spaces.
That we get wiped out with famine and disease.
That we do not know where we came from.
That we also are so small, on a bigger being, in a big space.
I wonder if they know we pray.