God’s Marble Collection Poem by C Richard Miles

Our solar system is perhaps a cosmic game of marbles
Played by God on the black silk handkerchief of sky.
Even though each planet may resemble hard glass globes
That he scattered randomly upon the smooth cloth.
The garish yellow bulls-eye sun, a giant boiled egg-yolk
Carefully placed on the exact epicentre of the sheet.
Then Mercury, a small grey glob, still hot from the mouth,
Of well-chewed, flavourless, discarded chewing gum.
Venus next, a misty, mysterious, cloudy creampuff,
But red hot as an extra-strong mint on the tongue.
Red, cherry-tomato sized Mars spins slowly on its axis
Wizened after a week or two in the chill cabinet of the fridge.
The stripy humbug Jupiter, a great gobstopper of a globe
Hulks its bulk halfway to the edge of the silk square.
Like a jumbo flying saucer, Saturn spins enthusiastically,
A fun-filled surprise of fizz in the calm sea of space.
The green, unripe nut-case of Uranus totters haphazardly,
Skewed sideways at right angles on its slender stalk.
Duck-egg blue, cool nugget Neptune sits sole, slinking
Out on the margins of dark matter, unconcerned
That the is-it, isn’t-it thought-bubble that was Pluto
Has been popped permanently by the so-called experts.
And, closer to home, the scarred white-alley of the Moon,
Battered and cracked with a thousand close encounters
With ice-cored comets and asymmetrical asteroids
In this Elysian target-practice shooting-gallery.
And what of the prize in God’s marble collection?
Earth, that finely-crafted paperweight of Waterford crystal
So intricate in its design and diversity, firm yet fragile.
Earth gleams ice-white on a blue-green pool, decorated,
With the billion millefiori of its unique flora and fauna.
But then we glimpse an army of black-ant humanity
Crawling malevolently irresistibly across the greenery,
Locust-plague-like, indiscriminately decimating and devastating
Till all pales to a morbid, turbid, unappealing grey smog.
But God may just be resting in his marble game and waiting
To pitch his newest shiny acquisition in the rink
And will he score a hit and smash to smithereens
The one that once he prized which now has lost its sheen?