Alpha and Omega 1 – a beginning

Genesis
in the Bible means beginning, and it was
on the sixth day God made animal life on earth.

Alpha-the alligator
and
Omega-the Zebra

were friends,
born on Noah’s Ark.

*

“Why do you act so silly?”
Omega asked his
friend.

He was tired of
watching Alpha doing somersaults
again.

His alligator colours
seemed
to dazzle everyone
with each new turn and roll.

“Try not to be so serious,”
Alpha answered

he was just a baby alligator
and babies
were supposed to
have fun.

“Well, I think
you should be a
little more formal,” Omega answered
with a crack of his tongue.

Omega wished he
could be
somewhere else
right now

like running
on open grassy plains.
He believed the
stories his mom told
about the way it
used to be.

“Formal?” asked Alpha,
laughing loudly
at the strange word.

“Yes,” Omega said.
His zebra
stripes were evenly
spaced

on his glossy coat.
They
went round and
around his body in perfect
lines.

By now
the other animals in
Noah’s Ark
were in stitches.

“See what I mean,”
Omega admonished.

“I see only smiling
faces,” Alpha answered

and continued to
walk past
many animals and
birds,
watching from
their stalls.

Alpha began
to dance and sway
as they stared.

Birds buzzed by,
their wings a
symphony
of ruffled feathers.

Animal snorts
and he-haws, mixed
in with roars
and screeches
added to the chorus.

Omega
was startled at
the excitement his little
friend
was creating.

“Don’t you remember
what
our moms taught us?”
Alpha asked-

“To make a joyful noise
unto the Lord.”

In that moment
a humbled
Omega
joined in the singing

his throaty voice
rising
higher than the
rest.

From the far
end of
the Ark, Noah smiled.

And high above,
so did God.

* * *

(c) Richard L. Provencher and David Gagne