Three

One, the salmon, who lives its adulthood
in unyielding pursuit each day and dawn
against fierce counter flow, to a childhood
home, bearing jaws of death, for birth of spawn.

Two, the hummingbird, who does take each day
a singular wing in double delight,
both in beauty’s eye and nectar buffet,
all while in a life-giving pollen flight.

Three, the spider, who in a nightly spin
from its abdomen, weaves a single thread,
oft dew bejeweled, of pattern wherein
a wonder of the universe is read.

These three make animist me one the fourth,
in whose inspiration I will go forth.