Wrinkled Time (Gabrielle Bryden)

 
Madeleine L’Engle
wrinkled time.
 
crumples, crinkles, dips
waves, ripples, loops
stringy twirls
oscillating tendrils
freewheelin’ in non-linear time
 
Breath ceases,
baby cries for the first time,
life circulating.
 
No straight lines in nature.
 
If you think you see one,
crystals spring to mind,
take a closer look
and you’ll find it gone –
Mandelbrot had a fractal theory.
 
Look intimately at a spider web
to see a straight thread
between two points.
 
Human-made straightness,
requires extra energy.
 
If there are no straight lines in nature,
why would time deviate from straight?
 
Spherical earth rotating,
sun circulating.
 
Rotund moon held tightly
in ring-shaped trajectory.
 
Electron spin,
atomic, molecular orbital.
 
Sound waving gently through the air,
light bending with the squeeze of gravity.
 
Dingy shaped red blood cells floating
in plasma streams and rivers.
 
Lost girl stumbling in the dark,
finds herself back where she started.