Singularity
when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was liquid and stars were space and space was not at all—nothing
Singularity
Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?
so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—
nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone
pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.
For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you. Remember?
There was no Nature. No
them. No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf or if
the coral reef feels pain. Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;
would that we could wake up to what we were
—when we were ocean and before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not
at all—nothing
before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.
Can molecules recall it?
what once was? before anything happened?
No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with
is is is is is
All everything home
-Marie Howe
(after Stephen Hawking)
So beautiful, Kimberly! ❤️ Last week, I republished a post I'd done on the elements and my belief that they are alive. I keep thinking about this idea. What if atoms (and whatever is even smaller than that) are alive, are conscious? They come together in certain configurations, or collaborations, for a time before moving into something new, but they never die. When they come together as us, I wonder if we can tap into the memory of every other form they were and will be. I think this is the singularity you call to. Thank you so much for these beautiful words!
Thank you for this almost surreal reminder of Marie Howe, It is a long while since I read « what the living do » and I must/need to, read more, would that I could write so profoundly, elements included. X