Mondrian fills my dreams
I am trapped primarily in bright colors
In black framed walls and boxes
 
This place is like an In N’ Out genius bar,
But where the geniuses are really geniuses.
Posters and paintings of Van Gogh
and Einstein and Hawking
line all surfaces.
A boy with his voice changing
asks you if you want Fried Parmentiers
with your Ingenious Meal Larval Beetle.
You reply, “No thanks,”
pretending to know what that means.
Then he gives you your receipt ticket
which reads,
“Herbert 142, barely genius.”
Somewhere you know
a guy or girl behind the cameras
at corporate headquarters
is laughing his or her ass off
At the stupefied looks of the patrons.
But the food is good.
You have to admit the food is good.
I would have ordered a milkshake,
a vanilla one, unfettered from flavors that
mask it’s natural taste,
as if anything is natural anymore.
But I wasn’t really there, or was I?
 
I came into this world
as did all, on a microscopic pin prick of infinity.
All that ever was, is, and will be, was there,
even the space it would one day create
through expansion of matter and energy,
both light and dark, gravity, apparent emptiness;
it was all there.
 
This was before the pre-quarks, leptons,
electrons, neutrons, protons,
atoms, molecules, minerals,
amino acids, bacteria and all the rest.
But is “before” really the right label?
Because there was no time back then.
 
You and I find ourselves
self-proclaimed “life”
Banishing viruses and prions
Amongst other DNA options
as not having cells
and therefore not alive.
 
Anyways, we’re here; we’re alive
by our own definition;
we’re cellular.
So what?
 
This isn’t the only us.
This isn’t the only universe.
This isn’t the only timeline.
 
There are but infinite realities.
Parallel universe theorists
don’t do it service.
For universes are not parallel.
They branch off and veer left, right,
up, down, diagonal,
and in dimensions we cannot perceive
in this universe,
in this animal brain.
 
Events happen
as simple as when a leaf falls
or a leader comes to power.
 
Is this the only universe
where reality show TV rules,
including the presidency
of the so-called “free” world?
 
Unfortunately not.
But are there not at least as many
where another 60 candidates won or more?
 
Of course.
 
Has our universe gone wrong?
 
I don’t think so.
 
The universes are infinitely adaptable,
except for the ones that die out.
 
Will they all die out?
Might they all die out?
Might we be headed toward a world
without options?
Ceased forking?
Not even a rivulet?
A dead end?
 
Only we can choose.
 
These formerly Mondrian walls,
tall dark walls of boxes,
now lack even faded color.
 
I’m waiting for a branch of light
to shoot its way
into this timeline
like a rainbow slide…
 
Into this universe
all written
on genius bar napkins