Coincidental Messenger, Just Before 2 AM

If the cockroach on your pillow
That wakes you from deep sleep
By crawling along your neck
Is not a messenger, nothing is.

You are such a giant being,
Conglomeration of so many,
Many microscopic lives,
The cosmos needs to speak with you,

And the cosmos that you live in
Knows no other way to do this
Than to organize a cockroach
To crawl along your neck

And wake you to listen. Now you are
Ready to receive the message
The universe needs to give you—
Even sleep hides agency,

Even pillows contain hungers,
What lives and what does not,
What seeks and what just is
Are all the same. Crushed cockroaches.