~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Robert Lowes

Before the Big Bang

Let a poet explain.

An infinitely small, infinitely dense

and infinitely hot particle

was hanging around,

a period in search of a sentence,

a cue ball begging for a break,

killing time, but not killing time—

there was no time

in the particle’s eternal now.

Its biography, so far,

was infinitely brief

and to an incomprehensible point.

No Ten Commandments

ruled this speck, not likely

to cheat on a spouse.

Its only sins—a boundless,

self-contained narcissism

and ravenous ambition.

I want to spread out.

To think this dot of pure infinity

exploded—no, raged—

into thingness: hydrogen,

iron, carbon, coal,

a bacterium in a flea’s gut,

Van Gogh’s bloody ear,

the Northern Lights—

well, anything’s possible,

even Albert Einstein

whacking the original smidgen

with a Louisville Slugger

and rounding the stars,

his spray of hair

as white as any galaxy.

Robert Lowes is a writer in St. Louis, Missouri, whose first collection of poetry, An Honest Hunger (Resource Publications), was published in 2020. His second collection, Shocking the Dark (Kelsay Books), was released in 2024. His poems have appeared in journals such as The New Republic, Southern Poetry Review, Big Muddy, and Modern Haiku. He is a journeyman rhythm guitar player in rock mode. Samples of his writing are available at robertlowes.com.