ORIGINS AND OUTCOMES
-
Gregory
Woods (U.K.)
Our parents were born
when one of the gods
cracked open a walnut
and the kernel fell to earth
leaving him with two
empty halves of the shell
A lesser god peevish and spoilt
he stamped on the nut with his heel
and spat on it uttering curses
foetuses of poetry
Out of that spitty pulp once his back was turned
arose the architectural orders
the golden mean
the Decalogue
the principle of vaccination
the silicon chip
and the atom that in splitting
vaporises
an industrial city with its port
its playgrounds and its hospitals
****