a little particle of tears and smiles
floating and wading through
the cosmic river of eternity

slipping, slipping, slipping
through God's fingers-
sleeping on heaven's heavy clouds

small, feathery,
and insignificant than
the palest, bluest of stars

a crumb narrowly escaping
the invisible, all-powerful vacuums:
the seductive, mysterious, magnetic
black holes

swimming through
infinite, infinite ether

navigating pulsing nebulae,
slithering solar systems,
and rocky, rugged asteroid belts
visiting the ancient and cold corners
of the darkest pockets of space
no life, stiller than the coldest ice
and the hot-tempered, adolescent sun
firing, fuming, roaring

o, interplanetary traveler —
are you merely a grain
left over from an implosion,
that grand cosmic explosion:
the sprouting of the small seed
that procured the Universe?

or are you a figment
of a higher power's
omnipotent, invincible,
unreachable mind?

are you both?