Gulp

Everything all at once takes a pause
then resumes again

We can’t see or feel it most times
a crack the size of the cosmos

sealed up in an illusion of continuous flow
a pause between one breath and the next

that includes every star no matter
how far away and every sun long

beyond eye- ear- or any-shot
a gulp that isn’t quite a

gulp or a blink that doesn’t mean a
moment exactly of darkness

so infinitesimal a break no worm
or wombat feels anything at all

But what could heave itself
between one living existence and the next is so

monumentally gigantic so beyond any
conception of infinitude

And there and on both and all sides
is Allah and there He on all sides also isn’t

O sweet Mercy O sweet rain of
elements sweet God of it all

That we exist at all O God
in this rush!

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3/14/08 (from The Fire Eater’s Lunchbreak)

Categories: Poems