<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Singularity</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">(after Stephen Hawking)</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">we once were?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">so compact nobody</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">needed a bed, or food or money —</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">nobody hiding in the school bathroom</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">or home alone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">pulling open the drawer</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">where the pills are kept.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">For every atom belonging to me as good</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Belongs to you. Remember?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">There was no Nature. No</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> them. No tests</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to determine if the elephant</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">grieves her calf or if</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the coral reef feels pain. Trashed</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">would that we could wake up to what we were</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">— when we were ocean and before that</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">liquid and stars were space and space was not</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">at all — nothing</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">before we came to believe humans were so important</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">before this awful loneliness.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Can molecules recall it?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">what once was? before anything happened?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">No I, no We, no one. No was</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">No verb no noun</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">only a tiny tiny dot brimming with</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">is is is is is</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">All everything home</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 54px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">- Marie Howe</div></div></body></html>