The Small Bang

I wrote a recipe

for keeping death away

in shorthand,

the hour hand,

but when the hour passed,

the next was identical in its place,

my recipe remained

applicable

and unnecessary just as we are,

so determined to stay

and incapable of staying,

like all things,

turning into their opposites

as we turn into not-us

as a full glass turns empty

if I wait long enough,

like the big bang,

so short,

so full of future.