Point Imperial

A trickle of water
Becomes a rivulet
Becomes a stream
Becomes a river

All the while eating the rock
Over which it travels
Cutting a cleft
A channel
A chasm
A canyon

I stand on the bedrock of time
Capturing a moment
A slice
A fraction
Of eternity

Immensity strikes me
Then, of space
Now, of time
Tracing back as the river
Becomes the stream
Becomes the rivulet
Becomes the trickle

From the trickle
Sputters a single drop
From it, an atom
From it, a proton
From it, a particle

A particle created
In the cataclysmic moment
When time began

Before me is all of time
Captured in a particle
As old as time
Flowing down a river
In a canyon
Which a moment ago
Seemed ancient
And immense