March 2013, revised September 11, 2019
It could be out there even now
slouching from Sagittarius
at the speed of light –
the final cosmic tidal wave
collapsing vacuum into void.
The ghost of Koheleth cries again
vanity, vanity, all is for naught
for the number of the beast
is hidden in the Higgs –
125 GeV. Hear this and weep
you prophets who probe
the bitter equations:
the pseudo-emptiness teems
with too much and one day must slump
to an emptiness more true.
Oh this could be chimera.
Vacuum could hold
as space expands forever
and ever to emptiness again.
Just so, beloved, the monster
under your bed is nothing, really;
somehow or other it’s nothing at all.
In the spell of the cold shadow
you can feel the final calm
of cosmic indifference.
By ragged fields pale lilies bloom
and sparrows sing more sweetly
than they ever sang before.
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| Photograph by David Noah Winterville, Georgia |
Beautiful meditation on the Nothing that eventually swallows us all. It's the realization of our finiteness in the vastness of space that makes the sparrow song so sweet. Thanks, Bob!
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