Floating in the ether, lurking in the treetops,
down among the thrushes, under the earth.
Little particles of me
in far more places than I expected to find.
Scattered like ashes,
blown about by some gussied-up gale and spread over the horizon.

When I find new particles in unfamiliar places,
I carefully retrieve them and return them to my center,
leaving not one behind.
No, not the stubborn or the ugly or the God-fearing,
for they belong there, too.