[rain frog      thorn bug      tent bat]

rain frog          thorn bug          tent bat along a broken mosaic    a spongy    ever-dwindling path soaring trees    woody buttresses    their massive twisted fins lofty crowns    shoulder to shoulder    climbing lime-green vines    restless palms    one strangling plant    clinging to choking another    a discontinuous canopy of branches and leaves impenetrable    alive and teeming    tangled underbrush the deeply shaded soil    lumpy roots    writhing across the forest floor    low-growing ferns    seedlings struggling for light    jewel-colored hummingbirds insects sizzling and clicking and the dripping water trickling into the tiniest crevices    steamy claustrophobic air    a dazzling bellbird    lost in a shaft of sunlight    a golden eyelash viper sinuous as a vein on a broad-leafed frond    flat worms land leeches    walnut-sized spiders    goliath beetles camouflaged butterflies on dead leaves    parasites    bees leaf-cutting ants atop glorious white lilies    everywhere gripping    climbing    twisting    floating through the trees stilt-like aerial roots    the mouth-amazed pitcher plant buried larvae    fruit-eating fish    the perpetual battle to adapt the ruthless drive    to survive under a punishing sun what grows    bursts forth at astonishing speed    then decomposes to be reabsorbed    so much unknown    unfamiliar unnamed    but before long    the trees seem the same the rocks    every bird track    who would dare think of such a place who would dare        construct one         of his own imagining and be utterly abandoned    in the middle of it all if to be lost is to be fully present    if confusion becomes the only boundary    and then    the decision    [to divide space until a direction is created]    only a madman would begin thought is its own cage    the mind    already anticipating the first step    deciding    every turn will be coupled by disaster    and perhaps    some bestial creature crouched at the center    crying    waiting for our hero    our everyman    our Elijah wandering the earth in rags