For Vince

A dear friend wrote me.
Said he couldn't read my
Last sally into the abyss.
Smacked of bother, he said.
Just more of the same.
Despair is cheap.
Sold on every corner.
Beamed down into our
Collective reptile brains
By those baleful, neon crosses.
Show me a doorway, he said,
Toss me a bone.
He is a wise, sad master,
Although he doesn't know
His name.
 
But this message didn't spring
From him.
It erupted from the Big Blast,
It teetered on the brink
For a very long time.
 
Then something wonderful happened;
A dandelion broke through the asphalt.
A creature ventured forth from the sea.
Someone, somewhere kissed a stranger,
And told the truth only two tongues can tell.
A group of apes formed a tribe,
Found grooming a friend
Beat smashing a head
By a good mile and a half.
Mindless molecules found
Bonding, in spite of the odds.
Creatures went out to hunt,
and others went out to get et.
 
The whole improbable cosmos
Rejoiced in choiceless silence.
Numb Dumb perhaps,
But excited nonetheless.