They had already fallen
into that rhythm
of loving the world;

morning and evening,
the days
stepped out

with something like footfalls,
morning and evening for eons
without a microbe or rat.

Yet there must have been
such suspension,
such breath

in that humid and green
arrival. Sometimes
a kind of prayer

takes any animal
into this warm rain,
breast of something

that loves flesh
and hopes
the new beast will come.