Even the smallest things luxuriate
in tapestries of fine-wrought filigree:
Look at a grain of salt: how stubbornly
the broken rock tries to return to cubes!
Look at a broken penny: the edge shows
the secret structure of the smooth surface.
Or look closely at wood: you see the work
of living worlds linked to cooperate.
As humans learn to compute fractal curves
we find details detailed, like natural views,
panoramas inside miniatures;
our re-creations lack, and point us to,
the elegance of God's embroidery
on a stark simple choice of particles.


September 16, 1992