FOOTNOTE TO GENESIS



The world is a pebble
flung into the void
casting out ripples – moisture

like cold perspiration and the
faint odour of nitrogen, oxygen
and carbon dioxide cling

to it as it flashes, a bright
dart tracing its fading
snail-trail down the sky.

Anything else you care to say
is pure conjecture and
won't hold up under scrutiny.

First published in, I think, Southern Ocean Review, maybe 1999 or 2000

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