Still When Past Them

Life, including dying,
To one side, existence
To the other—that’s how

You see it now. Not life
Forever against death.
Both through life and past death,

Existence weaves itself,
All nonliving substance
That’s alive for a while,

Involves each sort of life
In turn—predator, prey,
And, mostly, parasite—

Then, while those lives go on,
Returns again to waste,
Ordinary being.

And for the lives churning,
Consuming each other
By wholes and sampled parts,

Existence keeps passing
Through them, as them—also
Waiting, for them past them.