Natural Selection, Naturally

August 13, 2010
Science doesn't answer all of the questions.

So...
          how did those bugs know
                    those other bugs don't taste too fine?
Then,
          how did they get the word out
                    to the rest of the swarm or hive
                              to change their spots or stripes
                                        to look like those other bugs?
First,
          they must have had one
                    heck of a research team
                              investigating the necessary DNA markers
                                        needed to evolve.
Perhaps,
          they thought real hard,
                    gritting their tiny little mandibles,
                              chanting “I think I can! I think I can!” until
                                        the right shades and hues popped out on their tiny little exoskeletons.
Maybe
          they just used Match.com
                    to hook up with the right
                              mates to propagate
                                        the appropriate gene pool.
However
          they did it,
                    them some smart bugs.

Big Bang

July 5, 2010
This started as a quick assignment in Creative Writing 238. We were instructed to quickly write a list of sounds, select one, write a descriptive paragraph. I selected "car crash" and wrote what I could remember of sounds from a car crash that I had experienced. Looking for notes to another story, I found it and noticed poetry within the text. All of the lines are pared down from the original. As I arranged the lines into a more poetic form, I saw new meaning in the words. Creation. Thus, the last stanza.


no picture before
the attenuated screeching of rubber on pavement
no visual prior
to the dull, unmetallic
                                             thud
of grillongrill
absence of images preceded
cr unc hin g of g la ss
whOOOOOOOsh
exploded into
temporarily sightless eyes

a chasm of time
interrupting
the normal flow of traffic
darkness turning around
blindly facing a new direction
dust and gas and twilight
intertwining
in the confining atmosphere

stumble out coughing
have i been in an accident?

Guess What Happens to My Food

A diversion from the poetry. Don't remember when I wrote this. It was inspired by my daughter Catherine when she was about five.

Little Catherine ran into the kitchen and poked at her mommy’s leg.
“Mommy, Mommy! Guess what happens to my food when I eat.”
Mommy looked down at Catherine. “Do tell.”
“Well, first you have to chew it real good with your teeth. And while you’re chewing it mixes with your spit.” Catherine giggled.
“That’s saliva, dear.”
“Yeah. And then when you swallow, it goes down your asparagus pipe.”
Mommy smiled. “I think you mean your esophagus.”
“Uh huh. And then it plops into your tummy and gets all mixed up with all the other food. I think that is so yucky. I like to eat my food one thing at a time.”
“That’s okay,” said Mommy. “You can’t taste it in your stomach.”
Catherine thought about that for a little bit and then said, “I know, but it’s still yucky.”
“Is that all that happens?” asked Mommy.
“No. Then it goes into your intestines where all the good stuff gets soaked into your blood. Did you know I’ve got a big intestine and a little intestine?”
“Yes dear, I knew that,” Mommy said with a wink and a grin.
“Then know what happens?” Catherine put her hand in front of her mouth to stop from laughing.
“No, what?” asked Mommy.
“You poop it out!” And Catherine fell on the floor laughing really hard.

The Faith of Science

(May 2006)

Were you there?
Did you witness the Bang?
                              or the Boom?
(If no one was there, did it make a sound?)
Was there a bystander
          to the splitting of Dark and Light?
                                        Day and Night?

Did you see
the whorling, swirling, mixing
of rocks and gases,
compacted compounds
(ta da! the energy pill)
                                        (We still have to
                                        figure out where
                                        that little sucker
                                        came from.
                                        What?
                                        It's always been!
                                        Behold!
                                        The Omnipresent Rock!)
become planets and suns.

Was it you that started the clock ticking
to decree the cosmos birthday
to be in the billions and billions?
Start the clock!
          Atomic or planetary?
But wait!
Planets unformed,
          atoms unstable.
Time unmarked, irrelevant.
Rewind.
(The speed of light is slowing
          and the rowers keep on rowing.)

And it's all unconnected—
          connect the dots,
          see the signs,
          imagination unwinds—
your “evidence” doesn't scare me.

I oversimplify?
God!
Maybe it is.