Evolution of a Good Idea
You want to know why, so I’ll start
at the beginning, when cosmic dust
coalesced in the great void. If a planet-sized
object had not struck Earth and cleaved
from its mantle a chunk of mass to spin
in its orbit, the moon would not exist,
nor tides or plate tectonics.
One percent closer to the Sun, water
would have vaporized, Earth’s surface
would have never transformed from molten stew
to our congenial clime. Slightly farther out,
she’d be an icy rock. If land’s merging
into Pangea had not made competition
in decreasing coastal habitats unbearable,
fish might never have sprouted legs
and learned to walk. If the Chicxulub meteor
had not extinguished dinosaur’s
200-million year reign, mammals
would never have risen up, surviving
drought, disease, and countless other calamities
long enough for forbears to pass along
their genetic imperative. If only one
of ten-million-billion things were different,
I would not exist. And so, when you ask
why I’m packing up my things, the answer
is simple: too much effort
has gone into creating me
to waste one more minute on you.
Bill Glose is a former paratrooper and author of three poetry collections, including Half a Man, whose poems arise from his experiences as a combat platoon leader in the Gulf War. After serving in the Army, he worked in paper factories in Chicago and Massachusetts before returning to Virginia. Wanting to reconnect with his home state, he walked 1,500 miles through every region of Virginia and wrote about his experiences for magazines. In 2011, he was named the Daily Press Poet Laureate. His poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, Atlanta Review and Southern California Review.