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A Tangled Web


Picking its way
through a mossy forest,
the water bear,
seized by an irresistible force,
is swept to a cold hard place,
there’s neither food nor water,
and it cannot move;
it curls into a ball,
brings itself to a halt.

The physicist adheres
the test subject to a bit
of stuff, links that to another bit,
another, more, more,
adds two and two,
gets five.

The tardigrade becomes God.

The experiment swirling in his head,
the physicist strolls homeward,
trees tossing in a wind
he doesn’t feel.
Up or out he goes –
flattened, folded,
thoughts leaking out
like albumen from a broken egg,
he perceives, momentarily,
everything, from his unborn daughter,
to the heart of his living sun.

The physicist becomes God,
momentarily.