Hear tell of mathematical models to predict animal behavior:
sanguine slaughters cyclic like simple harmonic motion;
altruistic self-sacrifices when b exceeds c;
lichen, june bugs, nematodes, vertebrates,
all ink variables confined
to white pages.
Well come sit a spell at my linoleum shrine,
because as Father Carmelus the Franciscan monk died
of cardiomegaly,
I wet with a towel rag his naked body
spotted by fecund fungi, Ascomycota swollen
with salty perspiration and flesh fragments.
But Father never asked for morphine drips or liquid fungicides,
not but a cup of ice water,
strawberries,
an open window to see the trees.
Sun rays shone on his pale forehead
and he dissolved into speck particles,
floated free to blue skies.
