'Those Who Watch With Me' Poem by Daniel Brick

The creator-god was tired
and ready to resign. For eons
he had tried to make the whole
endeavor succeed: To make
created things mesh into a unity
and thereby prevail. That is
what happened on the beginning
and he was giddy with joy.
'I made you shine, ' he exclaimed
to the stars and their usual
brightness intensified fourfold.
'I carved your basin, I made
your slippery natures so you can
flow everywhere, ' he confided
to the waters, which took on
the color of the the sky
to match their gratitude
with his delight. 'Your colors
and perfumes are daily pleasures
for me, ' he told the flowers
as they swayed in the breezes.
But recently they don't sway,
they droop and fade. The creator-god
seems to droop, even fade a bit,
and now there are long pauses,
when his voice deepens into near silence:
'Has something been broken from the very
earliest days? Is that why the humans
are so bent in pain, so unhappy
even in this atmosphere of good?
If so, I am responsible....'
As he spoke those despairing
words, an adolescent deer
looked into his face, her large
brown eyes heavy with shared grief.
'What am I to do? I have cleaned
the joints and levers, replaced
the bearings that measure pressures,
added filters to the southern regions,
tuned the heavy wheels of change.'
But his immortal eyes looked into an abyss,
adjacent to his created world, and he
stared as only a god can stare fixedly
at nothingness. 'Is it all sliding
into the dark backward and abysm of time?
Will those who watch with me now slip
from my nurturing hands into a vast chaos? '
The female deer nestled her head
against the massive strength of the helpless deity.