S.C. Flynn

Long, long ago in a country

far, far away, Anaxagoras wrote that

in the beginning

everything was combined in one mass.

Billions of research dollars later,

scientists said that

before the Big Bang, there was one lump of matter,

from which the universe came.

 

Democritus wrote that

atoms form everything we see. Then,

Epicurus said that they swerved

in strange, unpredictable ways.

Thanks to further grants, we now know that

everything consists

of tiny particles that, alarmingly,

don’t always behave as expected.

 

According to Plotinus,

the entire universe’s substance

represented an emanation

from something without matter.

After exhausting their cash reserves,

scientists have now established

that the cosmos was created from

nothing except the laws of physics.

 

If only there were more money

for research. So please give, give, give.

 

(from “Seneca the Spin Doctor, Acumen Publications, 2001)

 

Poetry, poem, speculative poetry, science fiction poetry, Australian poetry, British poetry