Writingness

[tanarill]

My bunnies seem to have run off again. It's okay, I need to work. But still.

Today is the fourteenth day of the Omer, which is two weeks into the Omer.


The Essential Humanity

Humanity
is a story. Listen:
Once upon a time
there was a child, who
for Simplicity’s sake
(although Simplicity, as we shall see,
is not always desirable)
who, for the sake of Simplicity
will be called Child.
Child was young enough to be fearless
old enough to speak
and curios, as children are.
One day, perhaps
it was after Child had been playing
in the mud–again, will that Child
never learn
to bathe?–
One day–and perhaps,
while playing, Child had seen
tadpoles swimming
and frogs jumping and singing
to swooning mates
while halflings, too old to
yet be tadpoles, too young to
be yet frogs,
wavered awkwardly by, and were caught
in a net of Child’s hands–
One day, Child asked:
“What happened before?”
And Child’s father said,
“Before what?”
“Before me,” said Child,
in that way they have
of indicating that you should
not have to ask.
And Father said,
“Before you, there were
Mother and me.”
“What happened before?”
And Father said,
“Before me, there were
Grandmother and
Grandfather.”
“What happened before?”
And Father said,
“There were always people;
people came before.”
So Child knew that Father knew not.
“What came before?”
Child asked Mother.
Mother understood more than Father
and knew what child asked:
“Before, there was great Chaos
and out of Chaos, in fits and starts
came the world. People
came out of the Chaos, too,
to live in the world.”
“What happened before?”
“Child, go find some fuel
for the fire.”
So Child knew that Mother did not know.
“What happened before?”
For the moment, let us leave Child;
Child is not important, but in this:
Child taught you to seek answers.
For you, after all, were once Child.
You are no longer.
Oh, and another thing you learned:
the desire for a simple story.
Listen:
The world floats
on the backs of four elephants;
the elephants stand
on the back of the great
World Turtle. The world turtle
is supported on the backs of its
brethren kin. It is turtles
all the way down.
Yes? Ah, a question.
Where is the bottom?
Replace the word “turtle”
with time.
Replace the word “down”
with back. It is time
all the way back.
So, where is the bottom?
Would it not be easier
if there were a simple story
that could explain it?
Listen:
Once upon a time,
the universe started.
Is there a question?
No, we don’t know why.
Things like time and space
came after. There was no before.
It is a mystery.
Oh, yes. I would like to know.
But
Listen:
Humanity is a story.
It needs stories to be.


Concrit, please.

Comments

[scribe-protra.livejournal.com]

...that was gorious. I don't useraly like non rymhing poems cause they look weird, but this look just fine. Fits and gorious and wow. Um. Word! deep? phillosfile? thing.