TheBanyanTree: Once Upon a Time

[RJ Fernalld]

"There was no 'before' the beginning of our universe,
because once upon a time there was no time."
John D. Barrow

Once upon a time there was no time.
Before the void was filled
With the clatter of bombs and epithets
The soundless empty thought reigned.
No bells and whistles sounded.
Just the floating null, the absent moment.
No dawn, no setting sun at which eyes could marvel.
No sight, sound, form or prayer...
The excellent silence surrounded the nothing
And peace, friction-less peace inhabited
Inherited, incised, the incorporeal nothingness.

Once upon a time there was no time to waste,
No time to lose, no deadlines, no dead-time.
No spaces filled with too much time on our hands...
No hands to be idle, no clock, no sun shadows to
Pull us onward. No us. No shouted hatred,
No whispered love, no laughter and no time left
Before nuclear midnight erased the calendars
Destroyed the Rolex, when time just ceased...
Before we killed the time gift,
before we spoiled ocean's time tides
Before the time-without-end nuclear winter.

Once upon a time there was no time.
Freed angels of endless mercy floated
Without knowledge of time's wounds.
The void was good, the null was sweet.
Then the void became engorged and birthed
This howling wind in the universe, and time
Began its march one moment upon another
Until the brains and the braggarts broke it.
Time wreaked havoc until we destroyed it bit by bit.
Egypt and Atlantis faded. Rome fell.
Churches destroyed faith, morals grew gray.

Once upon a time there was no time
And time has run out again. Terror
Is the rule, blame is the game. Time
Is the crime we are going to pay for.
Time to build bombs, it's to kill the killers.
No time have we for peace without blood?
No time for love without price?
Is it time yet to care for the victim?
The time must come, before there again is none
To embrace the now, the here, the plea's
Of the hungry, the lost, the hated in our streets.

Once upon a time there was no time.
The soundless empty thought reigned.
No bells and whistles sounded.
Just the floating null, the absent moment.
No dawn, no setting sun at which eyes could marvel.
No sight, sound, form or prayer.
The excellent silence surrounded the nothing
And peace, friction-less peace inhabited
Inherited, incised, the incorporeal nothingness.
Before the void was filled and overflowing
With the clatter of bombs and endless epithets.

Copyright R J Fernalld 2003
do not reprint without permission

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~*It's never too late to have a happy childhood*~