Mary Mackey




Infinite Worlds

The limitless content of our universe might be only 
one instance of a large (and possibly infinite) number 
of other universes.
               —Astronomer Seth Shostak,  
                  Director of the Center for SETI Research

When you lift your fork an infinite number of yous
all lift their forks at the same instant   and an infinite number 
are missing their mouths   and an infinite number are choking
on the tines   and an infinite number are being struck by meteors
and vaporized  and an infinite number are being trampled by
cattle or time-traveling mammoths or naked strippers 
who look like Martha Washington   and an infinite number
of the strippers are sprouting purple wings just as Christ
is coming back in the form of an infinite number of small green aliens
who are explaining they are a poetry collective 
that specializes in holographs
and apologizing for the cultural disruption their guy-on-the-cross
experiment made   and that fork keeps rising and rising and destroying
everything in its path as you commit suicide an infinite number
of times   and give birth to an infinite number of babies who drown
in an infinite number of great rivers 150 miles wide which suddenly 
appear out of nowhere carrying schools of voracious piranhas 
who devour an infinite number of yous forks 
before they turn into infinite numbers of gold, rats 
hairpins and hockey sticks

because

when there are an infinite number of worlds anything can
happen   and will an infinite number of times   which is why
the idea of infinity   like all things that have no limits
is impossible to grasp even in your own kitchen over a plate
of fried potatoes with a red-handled stainless steel
fork