The Day of Sad Consolation

Is the universe alive
and does it know what it’s doing?
 
Are the forces we measure
its brainwaves, its heart beat?

Is expansion a breath?

Are black holes cancer?

And are we a part of it

or do we just look at it?

Can we use our computers to help it to learn what it is?

And why does all poetry require the parts

we say we would like to get rid of

all that death stuff?

 Did the universe wake up one day

and call itself God and only then perceive a nature

bigger than its own that could not be gainsaid

that told it there was no other way

they will have to have the power to kill

and they will have to die

and they will have to love

and lose everything they love

if they are ever to have anything

if they are ever to know anything

 if they are ever to be at all?