a gnat crawled up from the sewer

only to land on me

(me, sunburned in the tub)

 

I guess he was surveying

the landscape, the first gnat ever

to lay foot on the soft moon of my stomach

 

but then I lost track of him somewhere

between the birthmark by my belly button

and the tombstone tattooed on my breast

 

can you imagine being born

just to live and die crawling 

all over someone else