Ripple Effect

The happening will ripple
Over all species, unless

Things stop happening. You think?
Happening could stop often

And restart, like a sleeper,
Like a sleeper’s awareness

Between bouts of dreams. Who’d know?
No events, none, arriving,

As if all the trains had stopped
Before arriving again.

Anyway, you were saying?
Happening’s a hummingbird,

Or it will be, eye level,
Checking out your irises

Before it moves on, and then
It will be those little flies,

Whatever they are, not house,
Not fruit, not sand, that show up

As a flutter in your ear,
Quick wings alarming your skin.

And then? And then they’ll move on,
And the happening will spread

Through other species, yours, too.
You’ll catch yourself whispering

To something like a cane toad
Something about how humans

Have made a thing of poison,
And the toad should consider

The sugu and be wise. Once
The happening has passed through

All life’s species, then at last
It will have really happened.