Steven L. Peck


Singularity

When did love first enter this physical embedding?
 
Which creature first                     felt that mixture of
lust, longing, caring                   that went to the
                    
heart of being?                   Which collection of cells
or protoplasm                            first looked upon its
 
beloved and felt                        its flesh lean toward
and yearn for that                         other who held its
 
gaze? What thing                          first had its breath
stolen as it looked                         upon another and
 
found something                           within so powerful
that all else faded                            away in a passion
 
so inward and                             compelling that love
only describes                        what happened in that
 
fleshy breast (or                       tentacle)? Was it here
on earth? In some                     hominin perhaps? Or
 
in some ancestor of                    elephant or dolphin?
Or in some rat? Or                              parrot or raven?
 
Or was it first found                   in some star far away
from this galaxy                 that we call home? In some
 
slime-pool dweller perhaps     under a different star
shining into their                       skin and out again in
 
expressions of the same       love we know? It is hard to say
but in that moment               in that instant, everything
 
changed and the cold           dark things that tick tick
tick through the cosmos                  to the rhythms of
 
fixed clocks yielded forever to things that slide
gracefully between the spaces of force and fixture

Steven L. Peck is a biology professor at Brigham Young University. His poetry book, Incorrect Astronomy, was published last year by Aldrich Press (with cover blurbs by poet Pattiann Rogers and Utah Poet Laureate Lance Larson). His poetry has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Bellowing Ark, Dialogue, Glyphs III, Irreantum, Pedestal Magazine, Red Rock Review, Tales of the Talisman (Nominated for the Rhysling Award), Victorian Violet Press, and Wilderness Interface Zone. Other creative works include three novels such as his magical realism novel, The Scholar of Moab, published by Torrey House Press—named AML's best novel of 2011 and a Montaigne Medal Finalist—and A Short Stay in Hell. He has published numerous short stories, many reprinted in his collection, Wandering Realities, published by Zarahemla Books. More about his work can be found at http://www.stevenlpeck.com/.