ode to a tardigrade

dearest wondrous water bear

o mighty moss piglet

you are my favorite 

micro-animal

there should be a holiday 

in your honor

and why not today

we could call it

tardigrade appreciation

day and celebrate

with tardigrade T-shirts

and tardigrade earrings

and moss conservation

yesterday when I saw

the jiggle of my ass

in the mirror I thought

of your body rolls

on rolls like a fat

baby how you waste

zero seconds

on body shame

spend your days

swimming in a bead

of water held aloft

by a tuft of sphagnum

moss your snout-like

mouthpart sucking up

any delicious morsel

your adorable

spidery toes

wafting you forward

in your aqueous

world darling

kleiner Wasserbär

I adore the whole

half millimeter

of your extremophile

existence how you

can make a home

anywhere Antarctica

deep sea vents

mud volcanoes

sand dunes

but prefer a bed

of moss don’t we

all or lichen or

leaf litter how you

can survive via

cryptobiosis

curling up like

an armadillo

for as long as 

thirty years

without food

or water and when

wet arrives you

unfurl how I want

to be tough and

indestructible

like you and though

you seem squishy

are actually

encased in cuticle

and lay your eggs

in that shed shell

confident in the

promise of seed

you evolved

before us before

dinosaurs and will

likely outlive us

and who better 

to inherit the earth

and maybe the moon

too after the spacecraft

Beresheet crash landed

there in 2019

with thousands 

of water bears

on board

some kind god

built you to last

to feed and float

to dry out and fast

to inspire in us a

meekness we tune

our love to micro

strive to be milder

mossier versions

of ourselves