Grubby Lives in Wainscoting

If you’re spotted, you’ll be swatted,
Spouting your microbes and sprouting
Your feelers. But you’re so hungry,

So restless. You’re happy hidden,
But the blazing emptiness holds
All the known world’s possible foods.

You whisper little hymns of praise
To the darkness as you venture
Out into the wide light that might

Provision you safely and then
Let you return to your safety
Or might step on you. The light bends.