Aristotle BY BILLY COLLINS This is the beginning. Almost anything can happen. where you find creation of light a fish wriggling onto land first word Paradise Lost on an empty page. Think egg letter A woman ironing bare stage as heavy curtain rises. very The first-person narrator introduces himself tells us about his lineage. mezzo-soprano stands in wings. Here climbers are studying map or pulling their long woolen socks. early on years before Ark dawn. profile animal being smeared wall cave and have not yet learned to crawl. opening gambit pawn moving forward inch. your night with her without her. part wheels begin turn elevator begins its ascent doors lurch apart. middle. Things had time get complicated messy really. Nothing simple anymore. Cities sprouted up along rivers teeming people at cross-purposes— million schemes wild looks. Disappointment unshoulders knapsack here pitches ragged tent. sticky plot congeals action suddenly reverses swerves off outrageous direction. devotes paragraph why Miriam does want Edward's child. Someone hides under pillow. aria rises pitch song betrayal salted revenge. And climbing party stuck ledge halfway mountain. bridge painful modulation. thick things. So much crowded into middle— guitars Spain piles ripe avocados Russian uniforms noisy parties lakeside kisses arguments heard through wall— too name think about. this end car running out road river losing name ocean nose photographed horse touching white electronic line. colophon last elephant parade wheelchair pigeons floating down evening. littered bodies leads characters cells graves. It me hitting period closing book. Sylvia Plath kitchen St. Clement anchor around neck. final bit thinning away nothing. according Aristotle what we all been waiting for everything comes to destination cannot help imagining streak light sky hat peg outside cabin falling leaves.