The Story of the Universe | On the Beach

The Story of the Universe

Billions of years
Before you were born,
The cosmos was
A tiny ball;
One day, it exploded,
The world was formed
And has been growing
Ever since
But a year ago,
Your mother died
You were never
Quite the same.

Billions of years
Since the world was conceived,
One long day
In the scheme of things;
A week ago
You returned the rug
You had wanted so much
Because you were sick of it.

The universe expands
At exponential rate,
And it will never stop;
A month ago,
Your car broke down
Just off Highway 8;
I picked you up
In record time;
You were never
Quite the same.

---

On the Beach

As I walked upon the beach,
Over sand and shell,
I found a spot that seemed quite right
And, thereupon, I stopped;
I took my place upon that bed
And promptly fell asleep.

I dreamed I was a shell upon a beach
And was kidnapped by the tide;
I melted away in the roiling sea,
Reduced to chips
And boney bits of calcium.

I was disbursed in all direction,
Tiny atoms in the sea,
But, in time, I was absorbed
By some snail or clam,
(I’m not sure which),
Living on the beach.

And upon the death
Of that living thing,
I became a hollow shell;
I found myself on the very spot
From where I had come,
Wedged, like a diamond,
In the sunbaked sand.

Walter Weinschenk is an attorney, writer and musician. Until a few years ago, he wrote short stories exclusively but now divides his time equally between poetry and prose. Walter’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of literary publications including The Carolina Quarterly, Lunch Ticket, The Worcester Review, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, Meniscus Literary Journal and others. He is the author of “The Death of Weinberg: Poems and Stories” (Kelsay Books, 2023). You can find more of Walter’s work at walterweinschenk.com.