(After Andrew Marvell)

The gospel of Immanentism says do not look

above but directly at the earth—to its quicksilver

trail etched by a leopard slug across the sallow soil

of a spring garden, glistening ribbon meandering

with persistent hesitation toward a white-green

waxy cabbage leaf unfolding itself to moonlight

& sunlight alike—or to vermilion grasshopper’s

mango torso missing hind leg while fluttering

from lusty tomato leaf to cucumber vine, its muffled

motor blurring one eardrum—not above but

beneath an amoeba dewdrop quivering a serrated

sawgrass leaf folded over its exhausted shoulder

with dewdrop reflecting a luminous heaven while

sheltering the darkness of the infinite universe below.