Seven days
God had been playing computer games
for a chunk of eternity when he became aware
he’d left creation in the oven for a long time
forgotten to check what was going on in there.
And that smell of burning was no coincidence
he saw when he opened the door
inside it was far too hot
some of the ingredients were out of control.
Black smoke billowed into heaven
various singing angels started to cough
creation had failed to rise, had burned,
it seemed like only humanity was left
of all the complexity he had crafted.
God was not at all chuffed
and when he examined the whole mess
he could see it was completely fucked.
So god cleared his throat,
and in his terrible voice spoke.
Let there be no light
Ruth Aylett teaches and researches robotics in Edinburgh and has been known to read poems with a robot. Her pamphlets Pretty in Pink (4Word) and Queen of Infinite Space (Maytree) were published in 2021. For more see https://ruthaylett.org