for it is impossible for anything to come to be from what is not, and it cannot be brought about or heard of that what is should be utterly destroyed – Empedocles
Lavoisier and friends
teased eternity
great minds confirming
the Greeks
crude perhaps to see
your dead lover’s hair
in a coral reef
your father’s nose in a cloud
yet conservation of matter
is proven empirically
disciples of resurrection
sneer at reincarnation
shades of the same rainbow
a simple dispute between kin
Mount Fuji’s Kami
mirrored in Salisbury’s plain
spread your picnic with care
expired friends under your basket
a termite mound
harbors bits of Aunt Esther
granting that insect prestige
pledge allegiance
to the cosmos indivisible
Liz Drayer is an arbitrator in Clearwater, Florida. Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in
numerous print and online publications. Her website is lizdrayer.com.