Minima Naturalia

"...Now the universal whole is a body; for our 
senses bear us witness in every case that bodies 
have a real existence; and the evidence 
of the senses... ought to be the rule of our 
reasoning about everything which is not 
directly perceived."
             - Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus, 39




Unnerving      

               The clean 
                         puncture
      they drove 

                             into your hip

bone

      Larger than the eye
           of a tapestry needle

smaller than 
                        a bullet hole


If the soul
             according to Epicurus

                     is a rush of atoms

scattered through the body


         If the body 
                           like the universe is

indivisible

then

     time must slow down

                          at that atomic level


But sense
          perception provides

evidence
                         Only a blot of dried crimson
              on the square of gauze 

The soul did not leak
      
                                 out of the body

          Tangible soul
               Ethereal body

                          Who knows if it hid 
                
in the breath 

          or a follicle of hair