Tiptoe through the warming

The toes

of Michelangelo's David

are musculinely strong,

second toe a touch longer

than the big toe

as befits a gifted man.

This is how I walk the earth -

in Michelangelo's toes,

gripping the soil

just hard enough

to keep it steadily waltzing

around the sun

in its Gallilean galleon.

My toes tread carefully

among the growing leaves of grass

and upward glancing, jogging centipedes;

carefully on this oblate earth

with all our growing growing woes

to keep my footprint small

I walk on my toes.