as I ate I saw
a cool breeze tease a strung hammock
til it pulled one edge over the other
as if drowsily attempting
to stay warm. I was struck
by this autonomic act: did you know
that trout swim into upstream
rocks, in clever fluid resonance, when
they are dead and not a body any longer?
rotting, they hit the rock and flop astray,
to rally downstream and charge again.
and maybe this is all we can hope for
from our artifice: something as alive
as a dead thing.