"PARALLEL UNIVERSES"
By PALO PEREZ
But Suppose
Nothing Itself
Is Nothing and
Distance a
Mere Mirage
Suppose all existence is akin to a folded bedsheet
with each layer a dimension snug between two other layers
so all folded layers are aligned into a stack—
each dimension a universe unto itself,
and on each universe walks a contingent me
with all my selves in intimate contact
across a distance that if I tried to measure would cease to exist.
Bedsheet universes folded besides, between, behind, and before me
Thus all my selves parade shoulder to shoulder,
a chorus line of entangled possibilities.
What a choreography if I kick up my legs
to the music of the myriad cosmos,
if only I could hear that music and had legs worth looking at.
Imagine, that the particular me who is here and now
hinges solely on how the celestial linen was, is, or will be folded
by some tireless, mysterious, housekeeper.
Dear old maid, divine laundress,
bedroom goddess who creases all creation,
omnipotent and omnipresent busybody,
I pray that you who putters above and all around me
will eat some messy ambrosia and drip some my way,
while I sleepwalk through your daydream.
Copyright 2006 by Richard Fein
