Creation

doesn't it seem reasonable
that there is a god
and he said: "let there be light
let there be land and sea
let there be birds and bees and trees
and flowers and fruits and people"
and that this is ithe origin of the earth?
instead:
what is the real creation story?
that space itself was once minute
that all things
every plant, every rock, every animal
every bit of earth and moon and sun
ever star and galaxy
were once compressed into a minute amount of space
the size of a grapefuit
and smaller still
that this matter was not in the state that it is now
that there were no atoms
(there was no room for them!)
that this space then began expanding
and the reality that we know
condensed out of this ultra-dense substance
that the first atoms were pulled together by gravity
and the material that makes up our earth
was produced in these ancient stars
and blown out into space
in massive explosions, called supernovae
that this material was pulled together by gravity
in motion around a star
and that our earth represents so little of the total amount of material
in motion around our own sun
a rocky, terrestrial planet
just the right size
just the right distance from the sun
and then: the transition from non-living matter to living matter
and the mystery of where living matter begins
aeons and aeons of time go by
swirling galaxies race away from each other
as space continues to expand
plants and animals come from the sea
to colonize the land
species wholly strange and alien to our present world
an alien planet that is our own
full fo strange and spectacular ferns and reptiles
a time before our world of grasses and flowers and seeds
giant insects once crawled and flew
and dinosaurs:
giant and fearsome and awe-striking
and diverse
a garden of forms
two-legged, standing tall, eating meat
four-legged, gigantic, soaring necks
and sea monsters too
real, specacular sea monsters
prowled the oceans
and then all this was suddenly ended
and the planet of life we know today
sprung up from the remnants of an apocalyptic disaster
an asteroid struck the planet
six miles long
after a long, lonely voyage
from out the endless abyss of space
somehow destined to find this one target
this tiny oasis of thriving life
amid an ocean of dead worlds
but: it is not enough to destroy plants and animals completely
and the ancestors of humans survive
the little creatures
who give birth to live young
who climb and burrow
a humble beginning, to a life-form that will one day uncover this whole story
who will unearth ancient bones
and study ancient rocks
who will explore the planet
from the top of Mt. Everest to the deepest ocean canyon
who will find the giant, oceanic crater, left behind

the whole thing is like a great mystery
that was meant to be solved
and i think too, that the process of solving it was meant to change us
it offers us the spectacular
enormous bones and teeth, were all along waiting in the earth
to be found
swirling galaxies were out there all along
out in the deepest recesses of space
waiting to be viewed
i think it was meant to teach us
that the universe is greater than our own little world
that in us, the universe gets to know itself
for we are it
it is us
we were there all along
even before the atoms that form our bodies
condensed out of the primordial plasma
we were there
waiting to be born
along with our world
and everything else that lives
or ever has lived

the whole thing is far stranger than any story
truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction
it is also a more specacular story
than the rather simple: "god said, let there be light"
it is a story that involves us
and, to an extent
uncovers who and what we really are