The Local Wildlife

How beautiful,
such a gift
to see the way each life form
struggles and strains
to survive.

A bright green phigen
about to be devoured
by a dark brown quantamus,
emits sharp spikes
as it’s sucked down
the predator’s gullet,
killing its foe
even as it drowns
in the other’s gastric juices.

And yet
such a gift
to look in the mirror,
celebrate,
with my reflection,
this third year
on the planet
Ziprox IV,
bask in the glow
of observing, up close,
phigen or quantamus,
yet, thankfully,
being neither one of them.