This business of wanting Is back and forth Across the table We apply pressure The force of wanting Is where we’re going If not to be pulled into Like a magnet What we can’t have, Makes the want stronger Wanting for nothing But still unsatisfied Hoping for wanting From somebody It’s what I do, I look around, I look around, but there’s nobody left to find But who’s that hanging round, behind the doorway? Who’s that hanging round, behind?

This is how it started. Life said to life, “ we’re what there is” and life replied, “let’s keep it going” and then they all said “yes” and there were more of them. The cloud of mayflies in heaven will be bigger than Africa and every leaf that’s ever heaved out from stem, each slice of green, upward facing palm petitioning light.. every last one of those will drift through the cosmos even as they create it with their very presence. There was no knowledge of knowing, but there was knowing - and the knowing said “it goes” and the going said “I know” and life said “yes, it is appeasing for there to be knowing and going, let’s keep it up” and they all said “yes”. And then light swooped down like a hawk, except there were no hawks - so we can gather that present-day hawks swoop like light - except it was the present day when the light did the thing, and it is still the present day and light is still happening. And then light said “yes. Except there is one thing. I need eyes.” So light scoured it all for eyes and when it found them it said “I am born”. God observed, and by observing the life and the light and the knowing and going God forced wave after wave to collapse into is or is not. Except there was no is not - because what didn’t happen was never happening. God said “yes. I like how it’s all happening.” And God replied “I want to be inside it. I want to ride it. I want to go somewhere. But there was no where. So time said, “here - I can make this speck of dust extend in all directions” And now that there is a line and a path, I will obscure the center and start counting. So now there is a way to go. Directions became relevant. The suspended breath was exhaled and then inhaled and then exhaled and God rode it upward and outward and downward and into itself. The vapor turned around in circles getting heavier and heavier Until liquid. The liquid sloshed and became swollen. It pressed itself against its own self. It came hard and kept coming. And life said “yes. We are what there is” and then the mayflies and elephants said yes. The plants and the dust said yes. Sex said yes and hunger said yes and the eyes said “all of this seeing is making us very tired” so sleep said yes too and they all agreed to cooperate. To keep it going To sweep across each other indefinitely To allow for definition To begin.