Investigate the substance of a fallen tree
And you might happen upon a beetle grub
That feasts upon the giant’s decay
It’s easy to catalogue the visible features
The round head of varnished mahogany with its hard alien eyes
The crescent white abdomen
Translucent to reveal the brown intestinal sac
The tiny bristles
The six legs emblem of the insect brand
But how to account for the horror the monster evokes
Science accounts for surfaces
Even internal surfaces so to speak
And the worm’s immature exterior already bespeaks the habits
Customary among the animalia
Science allows the cheerful to sing
Everything is beautiful in its own way

And then you begin to detect the signs
Transmitted from who knows where
That announce the transit into nightmare
A tingling of the extremities
A whiff not quite ozone not quite kerosene
The recuperating neighbor swaths of countenance sacrificed to surgery
Armies of rapists mounting their invasions
The suicidal fighter planes
Nature’s concert of earthquake tornado predation fire and flood
The schoolyard bully causing injury and making no demands
Newborn babies roasted on spits
The great wheel of growth death and insatiable larval growth