91. Prologue IV

O sweet muse!

You have shown me so much.

For that I am grateful.

I’ve seen the living fossils

Evolving from the mud.

I’ve seen the passing of empires

Built on dust and blood.

Fearful men came and went.

Ozymandias statues crumbled to the ground

As new ones were erected over them.

I’ve seen the fires of revolution

The bloody rivers of war and conquest.

Now you point on.

I shake with the thought of future terrors I have yet to see.

You, like the angel of death before my grave,

Silently point to that cobweb encrusted door

Begging me to see that dreaded inscription.

Please muse, I say, must I push on?

Still silently, the bony finger

Clasping blackened scythe

Urges me to push on

As witness.

9. Prokaryotes

Dust swirled up from the bottom of tempestuous oceans.
As waves washed and mixed
The heated brew
Ribs of Atom formed our genetic Eve.

RNA to DNA.

Molecules that replicate.

The concoction worked!

Let there be life!

It took years to get the recipe just right but it happened!

Go free!

My Atom and Eve!

Build!

Develop!

Mold yourselves into new things!

Put your stardust to work!

Populate the seas.

Go forth!

Multiply!

You are dust no longer!

Remember though,

You will always return.

And they did.

They populated the seas until the oceans were crowded

With tiny single-celled life

They formed casings.

They squirted each other with poisonous molecules

Killing their brethren.

Eliminating competition.

They fought a never-ending war.

Necessity

The mother of invention they say.

Others might say she had gone too far.

Chemicals were developed

To get rid of their enemies.

New strategies were also developed.

Some created shells around their casings.

Others stuck together.

New methods were tried.

More millennia passed.

The war continued on.

Evolution took its course.

8. Oceans and Atmosphere

Rise!

Rise!

Rise up from deep within.

Create the large poisonous volume!

An invisible sea of gas!

Rise up!

Condense!

Form Clouds!

Fall!

Fall!

Fall as rain!

Down

Down

Down onto the sweltering red earth!

Collect into hot, boiling oceans of noxious chemicals

Passing through an electrifying atmosphere.

Crash!

Crash, waves, along the blackened shores of the new earth.

Let volcanoes dribble lava down into your valleys.

Rise again as steam.

Mix the cauldron of soup.

Get it nice and hot.

A dash of comets here.

A dash of meteors there

Bring in the new materials

Sprinkles of rain and lightning.

Simmer!

Simmer!

Boil!

Toil!

The green oceans separated and joined with quickly moving continents

Slowly churning the magic potion.

Add more ingredients.

Stir vigorously until it’s ready.

We will see what’s being made soon enough.

In the meantime get ready.

Soon something big will happen.

Slowly,

Slowly turn it down and watch as things churn and move and change.

You’ll see.

This special witch’s brew

Is for all of us.

It comes from the secret divine knowledge that created the universe.

Prepare the mud for life!