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.