<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">The Lesson of Eight Legs<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">On the steep granite<br>where the trail thins to almost nothing<br>and gravity and altitude have the only voice,<br>something in me remembers<br>eight legs.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">Not the mystery of its thinking.<br>Not the dark body<br>carrying its necessities.<br>Only the way it treks,<br>how each hairy foot<br>touches the earth<br>as if asking a question.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">My hiking poles go first,<br>lightly, lightly,<br>measuring what cannot be certain.<br>Gravel that loosens without warning,<br>jagged rocks hiding in shadow,<br>the sun flaring white against stone<br>until sight becomes guesswork.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">I have learned this kind of seeing.<br>The body, given time,<br>widens its understanding.<br>It becomes more than two feet<br>guiding downward.<br>It becomes a listening thing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">Slowly, the steep trail<br>allows me passage.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">The tarantula does not rush.<br>Neither do I.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;">By the time the slope releases me<br>into a meadow,<br>I am smaller than when I began,<br>and more awake,<br>held in the quiet wisdom<br>of touching first,<br>then stepping.</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Glenn Minervini-Zick</p></div></body></html>