Animal

--Katharine Coles

One can die. This

Numinous skin. The way

Flesh becomes everything

And everything around it

Taken in. Including all

It’s not but may anticipate

Or imagine. Including drag

Its belly; including perform

A hundred push-ups on a rock

And sun shining, all in

A day’s work, and

Curling up at day’s end into

A ball of self, under a leaf

Or thicket of softest green,

Waking again noticing

The sun has risen, not

Another day keeps

Coming up new, going by.