Life is as beautiful as death is beautiful
Bees are as beautiful as butterflies
are as beautiful as beetles
Skin is as beautiful as fig leaves
Blood is as beautiful as blooming poppies
Worms are as beautiful as corpses
are as beautiful as newly-planted seed
When I say that life is beautiful
I don’t mean my life is beautiful
Or living is pleasant
I mean the inevitable history of all life
is beautiful
The single-celled sea frothing
Tendrils rising toward the surface
Through which fish swim
And follow the current upriver
To die in the mouths of bears
Hunted nearly to extinction
By a few chimpanzees
Who dared to drop out of the trees
And pick up a gun
Or a pen.