Matter

Saint Paul, 14 November 2005

For scientists

Matter was one then blew up

Cracked panes, faulty catch-locks

The crumbled glazing

Of abandoned tintypes

These one-story buildings

Faced dirt graded streets

With silvery boardwalks

Expanding like the universe

One-by-one, I lift each floorboard

Where heavens were woven as one

I discover the neck of a bottle

That once emptied forth clues

I find the village church vacant

Its shattered clerestory whistling

I'm left to explain the natural world

Temptation in short supply

A wind-bent antenna as a tuning fork

My covenant is two-fold as follows

Draw from nature, but when you get stuck

Don't call in a mulligan from god