Cycling

It was the last day of the world, but, of course, no one knew it. It was a normal day. Babies were fed. Beds were made and then, sometimes, abruptly unmade in the heat of love. Men cried. Women went to lunch with friends. Old and young alike died of thirst. Magnificent weddings where performed. Robberies were planned. A small Asian man stood atop Mt Everest. Children studied or pretended to. A homosexual parade was held in Madrid. Kisses were shared. Gods were worshiped. Loss was mourned. Bombs were planted beneath dusty roads. Courts sentenced the guilty and freed the innocent...mostly. An elephant was downed in northern India. Fires were extinguished. Homes were built. Guns were fired. In Michigan an old man climbed a tree and refused to come down until his children showed him some respect. Hats were bought. Rivers were forded. Jungles burned.

It is the last day of the world, but, of course, no one knows it. Dead rock, dust and vapor circle a nameless yellow star. Boulders collide and fly apart. Pieces of a world remembered only by the blinking lights and whirling gears of a few orphaned probes. Time passes and is not measured. A cloud forms. The star glows hazy-orange beneath it. After a while a spinning asteroids and dust condense into a ring around the star. Internal collisions cause some rocks to fly from the ring out into nothingness and sends others careening into the star causing spectacular fiery geysers to shoot forth into black space. As more and more chunks of rock ram into each other some begin to cling together forming ever larger dust-covered bodies. Time and chance eventually leave one of these bodies the victor for having collected the bulk of the circling debris. Gravity’s pressure squeezes its innermost depths into a thick, hot liquid, even as it continues to be pelted from above. At one point the pressure within threatens to tear the new planet apart, but a lucky impact frees just enough material and sends it shooting into the planet's orbit to reestablish stability.

Soon it will be the first day of the world, but, of course, no one will ever know it…