You
A single point of infinite density
gave way to expansion;
heat, immense heat,
energy that had to go somewhere.
All the forces of physics came trickling
through endless fingers of space,
all the elements:
helium, hydrogen, deuterium and more;
clusters bound by gravity
conglomerated to galaxies,
stars and quasars, supernovae:
magnesium,
nitrogen,
carbon,
oxygen,
spread into the hurried expanse.
Suns exerted their influence
in the slow business of solar systems;
within one,
at the edge of a nondescript galaxy,
energy embarked on a new form
at first simple,
just single cells,
steadily complicating
through mitosis and meiosis,
to insects, arachnids, myriapods and molluscs,
fish that swivelled with pulsing gills.
Lungs inflated, tasted air;
skin dried to the touch of sun,
and legs pushed through land and water.
The rocky surface of Earth
invited plants and restless creatures.
Reptiles governed;
some filled with warm blood,
feathers, eggs, milk, fur.
And recently very recently, in fact
a large-brained, balding primate
multiplied inexhaustibly
and colonised most available space.
Some escaped the jaws of beasts,
survived disease and anything else
that might have ended them
before they mated, by force or consent,
and led,
one day like any other,
to you.
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