Foot Knowledge

We read our transgression in veins of this brittle leaf,
miniscule conduits snapped by exploring fingers
and in winter bones come to light with the upturned log;
small animal plunged and preserved in organic waste,
precipitate fossil, dictum aeternum
except for the rational act:
we could not re-order the tail bones we set askew;

but at our feet, beat out on a road of asphalt,
see the perfect design of enigma:
nets too minute to be dusted by frost again,
and remember how knowledge first reached us
by detour along our toes;
distillations: a squirrel in a shaking oak,
spent red acorns, tires along macadam.

Tonight our feet stray after the last gray light
and find it yellow on the leaves.