Contraction

Now, again, everything happens at once.
Consider the big bang universe.
Before the bang, time and place were the same.
After the bang, pizza parlors opened.

Now, again, I am you and you are me.
This is how it happened: it happened fast,
and it just keeps happening, over and
over. Now again I am the pizza

and the restaurant. How long will this last?
Look I didn't mean to be you, love you,
or eat cheese pizza with you, any of you,
no matter what species. Your little dog's

bark is too dark and too light. Quit saying
what I'm thinking. Help us blow up balloons.

Jack Martin
Copyright © 2002

Jack Martin's poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, The Journal, Mudlark, River Styx, and other magazines.