I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along.
I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too.
I am not washed and beautiful,
in control of a shining world in which everything fits,
but instead am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I’ve come to care for,
whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air,
whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions,
and whose beauty bats and shines not in its imperfections
but overwhelmingly in spite of them…
~Annie Dillard
