Integration

A crumpled brown paper bag of a leaf
knocked uncaringly one afternoon
by a passing gust of fate
clattered unexpectedly at unassuming feet
that were headed purposefully to Calculus

I, blameless, stopped
watched it backwards

The leaf levitating,
fluttering up to to the grasping gnarled fingers
to live green and grow swiftly younger,
disappearing into the bark of the tree
The air thick with swirling masses of fallen leaves
whole groves of trees wheezing in the dead,
their limbs fantastically shortening
Shrinking down to timid saplings
then to tiny leaves sprouting uncertainly from the soil
then disappearing into the earth

I stood still for a moment, math class forgotten,
a blank expression on my face
as my mind constructed cinematically for me

the planet incredibly diminishing and ceasing to be
the solar system quietly dissolving into an unflattering speck
the galaxy unapologetically and violently collapsing onto itself
The cosmic motion picture wildly playing backwards,
stars and galaxies and quasars and whatever I used to be
racing inconceivably towards
a single
bright
point
of

Oct 28 2008