Berthold Lippel

BABY FLY

a baby fly drowned today

in my breakfast milk.

it moved its many legs

leaving  the stage 

with a tiny dance,

having lived its life

paid its dues.

I feel a strange sorrow

wondering

where are its parents

who taught it to fly,

what was its favorite food,

was it old enough

to have loved.

maybe I chased it away once

from cheese or jam

with an irritated wave.

now it has joined

the immense daily dying.

life is a perpetual

funeral.