Proto deities
for Francis
the hunter-gatherer
expresses his faith in the mechanics of the universe
by burying his feet in the soil
allowing it to shift under the sun
and sleeping in its church
all pulls of nature are microcosmic gods
tugging on each other’s tails
coagulating centrifugal forces
upholding the planet for no particular reason
other than to exist
this will come to be known as faith
soon there will be scars from provenance
and new gods who wrestle on the story
spoken planes of existence to worship
but for now
the hunter-gatherer
puts one foot behind the last
this becomes communion
the prayer is the earth shifting
continental spiritual drift
one tribe to another
exchanging nothing but movement
the functional traffic of energy
later this becomes known as war
too practical to get swept up in dogma
the hunter-gatherer raises a rock to the sky
for no particular reason
other than to block the sun
this is misinterpreted as worship
and becomes the first death
expressing his faith in the corpse on the ground
the first shaman picks up the rock
and declares it the effigy of the one true god
the shaman razes the earth
and sanctifies the new world
built on the expression of faith
that the universe has always belonged to us
the last man on earth
makes a sandwich
he layers root
over crust
and travels
across fields
and deserts
through culture
to language
without
ever leaving the sofa
because
he is
all there is now
the
last man
on earth
makes another
sandwich
and unscrews
all the clocks
he comes across
he makes no history
no record
because
he is
all that
has been now
he reads
every book
in every language
he eats the covers
and spits
the spines out
across the edges
of the
supermarket
where he buys
ingredients
for yet another
sandwich
the
last man
on earth
becomes
the first
person
on
earth
to write
poetry
all the
poetry
is his
now
he uses
the leftover
words
to make
one last
sandwich
before he
walks off
into the
canyon
where he
never goes
hungry again
because
he has
seen it all
now
