PREQUEL

Before we
are born, our minds
must create themselves

by spinning and turning
like electrons
around a nucleus—

until, shorn
of all those
repetitive stresses

which conferred
upon them properties
like negativity and mass,

they may just 

sail off

into certainty’s darkness—

or else (if
we’re lucky), decay
in their orbits

and plummet toward 

our bodies’ brave new 

wilderness of guesses.