Early in Time

By L. M. Shearer

---

Early in time the womb of the world waited
in dark for the word spoken that would break light
over the waters and be called “day” and the soft setting
of light over the horizon that would be called “night”
the world's first morning and the world's first evening
and he stretched a canopy over the waters to keep the waters back
that girdled the earth above which the word of God labored
to shape and smooth an expanse in the evening black
and in the day glowing with light from a source unseen
he drew the waters back from the earth’s heart
and up from the ground sprung grasses thick and green
and fruits of fruit-bearing trees both sweet and tart
and called it dry land and above it
deep within the expanse he gave the sun
guardianship of the day’s light and made moon and stars
and gave the rule of the night to every one
and took to the sea and filled it to his delight
with creatures that varied in size and shape infinitely
and taking the wind that circled the earth
he fashioned a creature that could sail it freely
and turned the next day again to the dry land to work
beasts and creeping things for the freshborn land
then fashioned his own likeness out of the dust of the earth
and breathed his own breath into him, and named him “Man.”

---

L.M. Shearer is a high school and Sunday school teacher from the beautiful Pacific Northwest, USA. She volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, studies theology in her spare time and has occasionally written poems on post-it notes at work.

Shearer's other work on Foreshadow:
He Stretched Out His Hands (Poetry, November 2024)
The Revelation of John (Poetry, October 2024)