Amanda Bubble Crafts a New Creation Story

by Jennifer Bullis
 

In the beginning the beginning.
In the beginning It began.
In the beginning It swallowed the pine needle
and forthwith spat out the whole shebang.
In the beginning It sprang fully formed
from the forehead of the angry progenitor.
In the beginning the progenitor was It.
 
In the beginning was the Word.
In the beginning It named Itself.
In the beginning let there be, in the beginning
let Us make; in the beginning It lighted up the premises.
In the beginning It made colors for love
of the smell of the oil paints.
In the beginning It opened Its belly
 
and birthed all the flooding creatures;
finned and feathered It created them,
legged and leafy created them It.
It placed them on the deep It faced
and on the surface of the sky It backed.
In the beginning It poured them forth
and gave them every start they lacked.
 
In the beginning It saw that it was good
to eat, and in general highly worthwhile.
In the beginning open 24 hours.
In the beginning set things spinning.
In the beginning wobbled like a top.
In the beginning so delighted.
In the beginning It still delights.
 
In the beginning cosmic spitwads, beds unmade,
random socks. In the beginning crazy hair.
In the beginning hungry legs.
In the beginning fished the tree from the river.
In the beginning It built Its throne.
In the beginning brought fire and grain,
set out jam and teacups. That was in the beginning.

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JENNIFER BULLIS, originally from Reno, earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of California-Davis and taught community-college composition and literature in Bellingham for 14 years. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Iron Horse, Heron Tree, Tahoma, Cider Press Review, and the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Her first collection, Impossible Lessons, was published in 2013 by MoonPath Press.