If I were God 

I would exceed Artemis of Ephesus with her necklace of knackers 

and the handmaid of the Lord, Great Mother though she be. 

I would be pitiless, 

Punishing to those who desecrate the primal void and shatter my sacred silence. 

Nuclear. 

Fierce. 

Conjuring a cube from which no peep or plea escapes. 

Confined, their blood as dust, their flesh as dung, 

The Mustang Mach 1 driver, bursting bass notes pounding, thudding, throbbing 

buildings on both sides. 

The morning walker yelling at a cell phone: Do you know how hot it is in Portugal in June? 

He with the two-stroke leaf blower. 

Hydraulic hammers shuddering Scrivner Square. 

Idling dump trucks queued on Yonge Street. 

Real estate developers from Vaughan. 

Jet thunder. 

Juvenile tuba practice through the plasterboard. 

I would wall them in together and let them roar 

Roar and roar and roar 

Roar beyond demented 

Roar forevermore.

(Genevieve A. Chornenki , July 2021)