Chin in, I doubt the praying mantis prays.

His is an equally appropriate stance

For covering the back of his neck, or eyes,

Or for looking accidental to avoid accidents.

His name is one of those tedious unkillable

Incorrectnesses (ah, how significant

That even in this the gesture is possible)

We could rid our thinking of, and don't.

Enough (it's too much) that mantis means prophet,

Without cocking his elbows and wrists too.

Likelier it's for combat and discomfit,

Or all he knows really well how to do.

Still, there he was on the mailbox praying,

When I stopped to drop three important letters in,

Seeming to say about them what I was saying,

And wildly improbable in my town.

No, life is sufficiently apparently absurd

To include this several-million-to-one chance.

It happens. It happened. One is not bored

In a world where everything happens at least once.