Poetry

Tick

after Jakob von Uexküll.

a new-hatched larva is drawn to light
ascends a blade of grass
grips tight to the tip, wavers
forelimbs questing empty space

taste the air inquire after exhaled breath
or faint drum of scurrying mouse
the flurry of bird wings
a sunning lizard's still life

first feed full-swell
fall unmake reform
through moults and instar stages
to shield-shelled bride

eyeless deaf perfect
harpoon mouth barbed and calcified
the whole a proto-eye
garnering photons from the bright

lumber inch by inch to low branch
above deer worn track
days or years open to warm-blood signs
heat vibration the pungency of skin

the fall to flesh is an act of faith
crawl through fur-forest
surgeon an incision and drink
red purse body inflates

Jenny Donnison