Another poem from my recent collection Original Clichés.
Please do with it what you will! - Rob


A peckish bird has briefly knocked out part of the world’s biggest atom
smasher by causing a chain reaction with a piece of bread.
Bits of a French loaf dropped on an external electrical power supply caused
a short circuit last week, triggering failsafe devices that shut down part of the
cooling system of the giant experiment to probe the secrets of the universe.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) says the
system was restored several hours after the incident last week while the
multi-billion-dollar Large Hadron Collider was barely affected.
“The bird escaped unharmed but lost its bread,” CERN said in a
statement. The bird was believed to be an owl.
© AFP

The owl speaks.

there are some things faster than light.
i know.
thoughts of a scampering mouse,

the twitch and glide of my feathers
which move even before i think.
the anticipation of talons.

the secrets of the universe reside in my head
not your giant machine smashing crumbs
yet tinier.

there are more things in the universe
than dreamed in your philosophy.
i am nature red in beak and claw.

i am quick to see,
quick to listen,
slow to speak.

harbinger of your demise
after the briefest of lives.
envy my omniscience.

your knowledge
is at its beginning.

(from Original Clichés, Ginninderra Press, 2016.
text © rob walker)
https://www.amazon.com/Original-Cliches-Rob-Walker/dp/1760411272