The Chemistry of Nature

by Kayla Eby

The lamp cast soft orbs
of light on the worn carpet.
Across from me, my cousin
patiently tries to explain
the beauties of nature to me,
making me choose between
a winged horse and a car.
I am stubborn; I choose the car.

The plastic spike of a high heel
is as valuable as
frothy, chlorophyllic, fauna;
a spark-plug gasping in ignition
as the vat of a vomiting volcano;
the shifting shadow of sky on
a skyscraper, scaly with windows
as the dimensional dance of a diamond;
a crumbling plain of concrete
as the cracking rasp of a cricket call.

All molecules; DNA, carbon dioxide
were slung forth,
in a spoken genesis.
Finite, spewed out of Infinite.
For now it spins;
existence hung cruelly,
or mercifully, on the edge of
the temporal and the eternal.

Earth is a lion
loping forever at the heels
of the Master as He walks.
At the nearness, it roars,
all the seeping rain of joy
welling perpetually in its chest.
Out. And up.
to the One who gives all things.

I look at my cousin,
stumbling through
some explanatory words.
But then
I fall silent.

---

Kayla Eby is a young woman actively learning how to sift through the flak of life to find the truth waiting in front of her nose.