transubstantiation 3

 

when humankind

and all her spawn

galactic empires

and so on

are gone

 

and Shakespeare never breathed

 

and no star stirs

without a bug remarks

a new event

in its dominion

 

and children never swam

 

and Eve and Adam

have not yet sinned

nor ever will

 

and lovers never died

 

nor loved nor sighed

 

and the smoke from the cherry wood burning on the shore

never drifted over the bay

the day I rowed

to Maria

 

then new scents will fill the heavens

and with whatever tentacles of fire

new intelligences

caress their skies

 

they will