Ephemeral Pool

means it won’t always be

          here. Means puddle said

in a highfalutin way. Means

          the sun and soil will Shop-Vac

this water like these dirt daubers

          and bees, like the coyote

and turkey who tracked

          through the middle

to drink it up.

Biodiverse is another way

          of saying rain pooled

on a dirt road atop a ridge

          in Alabama. It’s a nod

of respect to tadpoles

          shimmying and turning

their opal bellies up

          to catch the light

and the mosquito larvae

          flicking tail against head

to dive and surface.

It means that in a single drop

          there’s a galaxy

of single-celled creatures

          thriving inside

delicate silica walls

          just as they did

when dinosaurs splashed

          through puddles.

Their bodies are glass houses

          is what some say.

Maybe we should all say,

          when we look to diatoms

and ask how to love our neighbors

          enough to keep

from throwing any stones.