Creed

First Do No Harm
Bob Hicok

While trying to extract a fly from a spider web,
I pulled one of its legs off.
There is the thought of small prosthetics, image
of a tiny hospital, tiny being too big a word
for the nano-this and micro-that, calipers
and scalpels and whats-its.
Once I grant soul, it’s hard to stop.
Does a carrot have any, and if any,more than cucumber
but less than squash?
Philosophy should lead to salad.
I was trying to help. By this phrase
we have watch fob, atomic bomb, the Red Cross, how often
does anyone believe otherwise, does anyone say,
I was trying to muck things up.
A limping fly.
Were I a Hindu, I’d say it was or will be me.
I like that as the name of a river:Wasorwillbe.
TheWasorwillbe flooded, hundreds were killed.
Six months later,
the best crop of wheat in a century.
I see a boat, a man asleep in the boat, his hand asleep
on the water, a fly asleep on his hand.