Benjamin Burke

Yes the concrete has been poured

But it was poured long before there was a word for concrete

Long before there was a word pronounced Time

Long ago, far way, where a star makes the days

out of dust from explosions,

things get frozen,

unfrozen

and then frozen again—

Children taught to make their meals from what is chosen just for them

 Taught to forget the in between and just to focus on the end

But there are wheels on the moments that have made their way to         

Now

There is a glass of milk upon the window sill

         and so, therefore, somewhere—

         a cow

Now there is death—

         Where just a moment ago

         I watched some strange animal being born

Blended clouds upon the storm we are

         and we mostly wrote the show

But no—

         The stage was set,

         the props were made

         there was a light,

         someone said— “Go”

And now there is death—

Where just a moment ago

         I watched an entire family being born

         There was so much muck

         There was pain and waste

There was the screech of a single voice as the baby passed from matter into space

.

You are made of dots connected

         And you’re a dot

         And you are fine

You’ve yet to meet the thing you dreamed long ago—

         Sleeping inside you all this time

 .

There is a thing that floats upon the air

         and passes from you to me

         What should we call it?

Well now, let’s see—

          What’s the word that means

         there are a thousand things unknown,

                  swimming within us,

that make us all work towards one thing?