Hard to believe
one of these little animals
who share with us
a brain and nerves
intestines
and reproductive organs
a creature tiny and invertebrate
who fellow bdelloids have been around
the fossils tells us
twenty-five million years
went dormant
twenty-four thousand years ago
in the Yakutian permafrost
and re-emerged from frozen soil
in 2015 quite alive
ready to reproduce
(no mate is needed)
for it's brief life post cryptobiosis
it must have been the oldest living animal
we know of
what other creatures may yet emerge
as the tundra unfreezes
is enough to give one pause