Brought into being
with a cosmic slap on the bottom.
Consigned to oblivion
by the blown fuse
of an imploding star.
In between,
nothing of consequence,
the weather was changeable,
the butterflies,
beautiful.

Derek Adams was born in East London, England in 1957. He has worked as a professional photographer since leaving school and has been working as a photographer at the Natural History Museum, London, since 1984. Derek has previously had poems published in Apostrophe, Poetry Nottingham, Red Lamp, Sol, Southend Poetry, Tears in the Fence, The Whistle House, and Winedark Sea (Aust.); his short stories have appeared in Udolpho, House of Pain, and Writers Muse. For more about him, visit his Web site.