Absurdity

One lovely Thursday afternoon

two billion years ago,

A star encased by arcs of moon,

embraced despair and woe.

This sordid joke of yellow-red,

This sneering, mocking jape:

To burn with heat, on axis sped

with no hope of escape.

So solace cursed upon a point,

it drew its final plan

As spinning round its lock and joint

its ending now began.

The heaving mass of goo morassed

then gurgled once and sighed;

A rattle scream of flames harassed

what silent void belied.

The sacrificial rings were flung

in sprays across the sky;

The interstitial threads then wrung

as ropes once bound untie.

And in these fictions fracture facts:

A single atom forged

and bellow blown through heaven’s tracts

to find itself disgorged.

The crush of black, once unobserved,

in fire found its sight.

The atom woke from dreams unnerved

in sailing stream of flight.

Without a frame, it screamed in vain

through parallactic curves

that weave the sieves with cluttered skein

Of dark galactic nerves.

Commotion drowned, it gazed about

along the ends it aimed:

The bluest gem beyond a doubt

the cosmos ever named.

It wept to see a brilliant Earth,

the fate bestowed by chance,

and in its cackles rose a mirth

expressed in photon’s dance.

It splashed the surface spinning fast,

now lost amid the sea.

The water rose at what trespassed,

mistook it for debris.

The liquid swarm convened in waves,

to flood the tiny core.

They stripped and pried, as hunger craves

and always wants for more.

The terror flashed, as pulled apart,

its briefly tasted life

now disappeared before its start

beneath the wetted knife.

So bittersweet and incomplete,

resigned into the black,

the atom braced for ends to meet

in swirling last attack.

But fortune finds where will converged,

as snatched from death it gasped

and saw from depths the land emerged,

where brethren all were clasped.

A molecule of carbon made

from crystal network cast

through jointed links of atom braid

that helix ghosts amassed.

Began the age of afterbirths,

of structure spat in space,

originating blest on Earth’s

atomic interface.

Now watch along the webbing sewn

the single atom weave

Through warps and wefts and whetted stone,

the knits of stellar sleeve.

• Original: February 2025

• Revised: June 2025

Submission History

Date	Publication	Status
March 27, 2025	Rattle Poetry	Rejected
July 15, 2025	Space and Time	Rejected
August 11, 2025	The Genre Society	Accepted
August 16, 2025	Rat Bag Lit	Rejected

Hi Grant,

Rejections suck, we get it. But, hey, you are doing the thing! You should celebrate that you are sending your work out into the world.

We’re sorry to say that Absurdity is not quite right for us at this time.

We hope you’ll consider trying us again in the future.

Reader Notes:

Reader 1 - I thought I hated this as first, but it grew on me when I caught the rhyme. I dunno.

Reader 2 - This poet has a really excellent way with rhyme and meter. And I particularly enjoyed the lines that internally rhymed, particularrly the verses that did it twice.

“Without a frame, it screamed in vain/ through parallactic curves/ that weave the sieves with clutter skein/ Of dark galactic nerves.”

This is one where I really love the lyricism of it, how it sounds when spoken, but I am not particuarlly engrossed by the subject.

Reader 3 - I agree about the rhyme and meter - it’s very well written.

However, and I feel bad for saying this, but I found it too long and boring for my tastes.

Reader 4 - Hmmm maybe it’s how i read it, but I felt like a lot of the rhymes didn’t quite hit for me. Like somehow felt off a bit. But they have such a way with language and so many clever word choices, that I definitely WANTED to like it more. Also, I agree with Reader 3 - the story didn’t manage to pull me in.

—Rat Bag Lit

Grant A Moore,

We were impressed with your work and would love to feature it in our upcoming issue.

Thanks again for submitting and we look forward to publishing this piece!

-Whitney M. Managing Editor