Free Radical

Before Gilgamesh invented

the kaleidoscope and Galileo

the Rubik’s cube, before the

scimitar-horned oryx went

missing, before the tamarind

trees went bare, before the

stars’ eyelids were wrapped

in tinfoil, before the leaves

could gnaw on water, before

electrons made donations,

before the owl wore a mask,

before the wind had a sound,

before the moon had a name

and the smoke a spine, before

the tulips crossed their legs,

before the tongue was

armored, before the ghosts

rode centaurs to riots, before

cyberspace was culled and

belly buttons sown to wombs,

before the taste had an after,

before intellect became

property and thunder

premeditated, before the

New, New World, before a

stone wished to be more

than a stone, before we had a

change of clothes, before the

grass was color-blind, before

the rivers lost their fingers,

and the rain stopped teething,

before the kings were all

beheaded, the gravedigger

neither young nor old, before

a lion was still a lion, before

the girls were all killed, before

the trapeze gave way.        We

hung           suspended in time

by the arches of our curved

feet and this tickled the gods,

tickled them to death.        & I

think our silence cut us loose,

let us go falling from the doubt,

secretly thrilled at the hems

and ever so eager to break.