I think the universe originated in Nicholasville, KY,
I just drove by and it seems as plausible as anywhere else,
some might say that Nicholasville has it all,
others might say that there’s nothing in Nicholasville,
the answer (as always) is that both statements are true,
the aporia really starts puzzling
when you drive into the center,
US Route 27 Business (not Bypass),
there’s a strip mall on the right,
there’s a strip mall and a gas station on the left,
there is asphalt below and atmosphere above,
and on that street there is a house
where a person was born and lived their whole life and died–

—

I think the universe is still a rough draft,
typed out on a Notes app while driving
at a high rate of speed down US Route 27 Nicholasville Bypass,
too fast on an afternoon because of all the brightness
beaming from everywhere, wavelengths crisscrossing
and weaving into sync, it’s hard to slow down
when reality’s immense machinery has Gestalted
and is erupting through all its unfathomable cylinders,
disgorging its mysteries onto the windshield gleaming
then gone but wait here’s another flitting the periphery,
it never stops, it’s just the noticing that stops,
especially when the engine can’t rest
because it’s been green light after green light,
which is usually good but is currently bad,
for once it is time for a red light,
it is time to pause for a moment and add to the Notes,
one wonders how many characters one can type into
the Notes,
how many quadrillions of bits
stacking into googolplexes
before the memory overflows,
before the whole apparatus overloads
and bricks into a silent weight–