Poem #4 from the Arts Fest Reading

Everyday Low Prices at Wal-Mart

Long ago (much more than 7 thousand years ago)
billions of years ago, actually (although it’s just a theory
whose opponents know [for a certainty]
how many angels can dance on the head of a pin)

elemental bits of happenstance and serendipity
were consumed in the bowels of the earth and
(egged on by gravitational passion)
consummated their periodic elemental coitus.

Pricked on against rest
(by overwhelming inertia) and
blessed by the limitless permutations of time,
gestation (eventually) brought forth
primordial Ooze

from the crack of the Mother
earth

and it ate its insensitive elemental brethren
(which was no bother to anyone)
and eventually

(consumed by passion)

foolishly Knew itself
(though a child at heart)
and complicated things further

And

with knowledge
complications geometrically progressed

until

All ate each other
(brothers, sisters, parents, and children)

All & None: innocent
All & None: guilty
Consuming, consummating, and consumed

Etcetera

FINALLY

(we would like to say)

WE (upright folks that we are) appeared on the shelf
to be Known and to Know.

NEW & IMPROVED
(the best yet)
(god’s pet)
(no longer wet
behind the ears)

Dedicated
to consume and be consumed
in the Ultimate consummation
of our carnival knowledge

and to put an end
to this Mobius trip.

So

Eat me sister
and I’ll eat you
and let us consummate our complications
so that What (we do not know)
shall (blessed by the permutations of time)
carry on (perhaps)

the splendor of
the consumer.

Everyday low prices at Wal-Mart