Size / / /

What sound
does a subatomic particle
make?

A single human cell?

A dust mite crashing
its micro-mastodon bulk
through a carpet forest?

The mad laughter
of evolution issues from
our lips,

this world a cacophony

of competing
decibels, of freight trains
lacking finesse.

When all are asleep,
I can hear the stars sizzling like
4th of July sparklers,

the moon grumbling to itself,

and the silence of
possibility seeking a voice in
a busily mutating world.

The voices of the
micro-universe still remain
a mystery.

Microphone, a misnomer.

The music of
snowflakes falling, barely
audible to the blind.

 

Copyright © 2003 G. O. Clark

Reader Comments


G. O. Clark lives and works in Davis, CA. He has work appearing in Asimov's, Dreams & Nightmares, Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Small Press Review, and other outlets. He was recipient of the Asimov's Readers' Award in poetry for 2001, the same year his book A Box Full Of Alien Skies was published by Dark Regions Press. A second book, The Other Side of the Lens, is now available from the same publisher. To contact him, email goclark@ucdavis.edu.



G. O. Clark's writing has been published in Asimov's, A Sea of Alone: Poems for Alfred Hitchcock, Tales of the Talisman, and other publications. He's the author of nine poetry collections, most recently Shroud of Night (2011) and a fiction collection, The Saucer Under My Bed & Other Stories (2011). You can find more of his work at his website and in our archives.
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31 Mar 2025

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