In Trust by Susan Kinsolving, the speaker is meditating on how there are so many unimaginable things that exist and continue to do so without humankind as witnesses.
Trust that there is a tiger, muscular
Tasmanian, and sly, which has never been
seen and never will be seen by any human
eye.
Be sure that in Tasmania, there is a strong and clever tiger that no one has ever seen, and will never be discovered.
Trust that thirty thousand sword-
fish will never near a ship, that far
from cameras or cars elephant herds live
long elephant lives.
Be sure that thirty thousand sword-fish (exotic fish) will never come in contact with civilization, and elephants will live long lives away from cameras and other onlookers.
Believe that bees
by the billions find unidentified flowers
on unmapped marshes and mountains. Safe
in caves of contentment, bears sleep.
Be sure that bees find flowers without help from maps and in unknown places. And that bears hibernate contentedly in their caves.
Through vast canyons, horses run while slowly
snakes stretch beyond their skins in the sun.
Many horses run freely across the canyons while snakes change skins during the day.
I must trust all this to be true, though
the few birds at my feeder watch the window
with small flutters of fear, so like my own.
Although I feel fear as I look out the window and my birds next to it, I must be sure that these things are true.