This was written as an alternative for the 2007 Poets' Lunch at ANU (Theme: First and Last Things) instead of Editing Poetry, but was not performed then.

Is Anything There?

In the beginning was the void.
At the end will be the void.
Has there been anything in between?

I doubt it.

But in that case the world is a figment of our imagination
Which means that our imagination must exist in some way,
Floating free,
Scattering ideas and concepts and fragments of creativity
Into an unappreciative void
Until nothing is left.

Are empty heads just an incarnation of the void?
Mindless sabre-rattling,
Endless parroting of the same non-answers
To the same repeatedly asked questions,
Void-creating negations of reason, argument and dialogue
Feeding paranoia with empty accusations
Sucking empathy, feeling and compassion into bleak nothingness.

If we're not here
We can do no harm to a world
That doesn't exist either.
Though overheated minds may imagine global infernos,
Environmental devastation,
And societal collapse,
It requires no action, not even denial.

Or should we imagine ourselves as doing something,
Scurrying like ants to implement pretend solutions
That change nothing except for the worse,
And that only in our heads,
As nothing hurtles into nothingness,
Emptiness rearranges into emptiness,
Void becomes void,
Remains void,
Is void.

So has there been a beginning yet,
To fill the void with significant entities
With which we can share treasured experiences,
Or are we still waiting?