Bootstraps in the Void

This thing about deities
Creating ex nihilo,
Procreating with chaos,

Separating sky and land
Or stars and seas from some mess
That somehow had nested them—

Why, in so many cultures,
Have your imaginations
Attempted this tour de force?

Small children go straight to this,
With their why and what was there
First, and where did it come from?

Is it in the brain? Is it
Something to do with language?
It varies in its details,

Culture to culture, but still
There’s some yearning that haunts you
To create a creator

Before anything and tell
How that being or beings
Created world from nothing.

Confess it. It’s what you want,
What you wish you could do, what
You’re trying by telling it,

Isn’t it? It’s your struggle,
To force imagination
To make something from nothing.