Threesies

These are about the three laws of thermodynamics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics, if you're looking for the real stuff.


Nothing Goes Away
The lie will resurface eight years from now
and she will leave, howling.

The carbon from your aborted baby will resolve itself
into your second son’s wedding ring.

The energy we spend is never wasted,
the split atom’s fury powers crumbling cities.

The electrons are shared;
they travel from the continent of one atom to another unchanged.

Time spent walking the baby up and down and up the hallway
will metamorphose into that baby’s hours hovering over your deathbed.

Myths resurface like bodies,
the old flood rises and rises and we never forget
and nothing ever goes away.


Everything Gets Worse
She told me and I have to believe her. First
the rains came and the cats drowned. Their yowling
woke the baby, who didn’t scream
at first. That waited until we had nothing to eat
(that’s a lie. You can eat candles did you know that? Leather is
alright, if you boil it.) And the baby screamed until she died
and she joined the others in the black waters. That was bad
enough until the sun sank and we lived in a world
of amorphous grays and steam. It was too hard to keep track of things
that mattered and I lost her. I finally now believe
that the arc of the universe bends towards injustice
after all.


Things Fall Apart
After all things wind down, and the systems of obligation have worn out-
the rubble still stands. Its sunset there, always. Don’t worry.
We can use the old movie theater as a bunker.
We know this in our bones, which are eroding
hour by hour counted on clocks that are already winding down,
that this too won’t last.
The bunker is already breaking into stones and sand, nothing to be remarked upon.
It’s only natural.