Like the One

just as the four-year old child is laid upon a pyre
with tiny ginger blossoms

so too does some hot Neptune shrivel in hours
against its expanding red giant star

just as the expectant mother concussed and cracked
leaves this world with one tiny companion

so too the innocent neutron begins her journey
from a plutonium nucleus into a humming void

just as northern white rhino embryos
far outnumber the surviving adults in all the world

so too do words dry to a crust
on the lips of a multitude who cannot help but look on