The Fixt and Random Universe Is Seen to Move

In the suckhole near the ditch,
snails squirm their way up
stalks of snake reed.

Get down on your knees
in the mud. You’ll see

how their pearl shells
bear up your bent face
and the whole bright sky.

Joe Wilkins is author of the poetry chapbook Ragged Point Road, and his first full-length collection, Killing the Murnion Dogs, is forthcoming. He is the 2009 recipient of the Richard J. Margolis Award and lives in Iowa, where he teaches writing at Waldorf College.