so this one time, I
put a hot star in an ice water bath
and cracked
a corner of my favorite galaxy
(I still shake my head at that)
and I once mixed up
salt and sugar
and the ratios of a few
other elements
(things like oxygen and carbon dioxide)
and well, I wanted Mars to work out too
and those craters on the moon?
blame a sourdough starter
stored in a Tupperware container
left out on the counter and forgotten
for a millennium…or maybe two
and sorry about Venus
I think the saran wrap
was sealed a little too tight
(and, in retrospect, I’d say hold the sulfuric acid)
but I swear, none of these compare to…
well, just imagine a pressure canner
with sunshine pouring out of holes
in a shuddering, shaking
cosmic cooker
pressurized, steaming
until it explodes!
and I don’t really know exactly what happened
or how it happened
but, oh…
time was bent
so was space
and afterwards
there was Big Bang residue
all over the place
| Gretchen Tessmer is a writer based in the U.S./Canadian borderlands. She writes both short fiction and poetry, with work appearing in such venues as Nature, Strange Horizons, Cast of Wonders, Daily Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, as well as a previous appearance in Kaleidotrope. |  |