Humans: beings directional,
symmetrical.
With left and right hands,
left and right feet,
ears that hear lullabies
from one side or the other,
nostrils that know fear or food
from one side or the other.
Beings who sneeze
while following a trail
through wet woods
to whose asters and mosses
two eyes bring stereoscopic depth.
Sometimes, it's true, the ears mishear:
death.
Sometimes the feet's direction is only away.
Sometimes the hands misunderstand their task.
They tremble.
They ask their wrists: This?
Fingers with such sensitive nerve ends,
such solicitude holding a chisel or cello,
they thought they were meant to inflict only beauty and kindness.
