He Wanted to Bring Back the Big Bang

Describe how this island
     became an island; whether
it was once all water or once all rock.
     The petrels matter to the ocean.
If they do not fly there is no island—
     there is neither coast nor reef.

Under the reef, more rock,
     originally hot, now cooled to stone
by the slender hand of God,
     reached down from dim Ceres
to leave an invitation
     for a séance at Vesta 4.

An invitation we never got.
     How could we have?
For, it was buried beneath coral and lamprey,
     meant only
for the minor gods of magma and pumice;
     for the soft-boned fish,
born in the teeth of the mako,
     circling in waters above.