Once upon a time
I would lie under the starry night
In utter darkness
To do a Messier marathon
I knew those magnificent
Beauties of the night sky
By their first name
Out of nowhere
They would appear
Once sun disappeared
We would behold them
In the field of view
Of our small and big
Telescopes facing the night sky
Just like the sun
Constellations would dip too
Below the horizon
While new ones appeared
Nothing compares to the
Silence and darkness
Of the dark night sky
Which has inspired
Countless artists and poets
I trust the night
It removes the blinding lights
Both sun and moon are absent
We can peer much deeper
And beyond
Going back in time
14 billion years is the age of the Universe
Along the way multitude of stars
In the billions of galaxies
Are burning away
Fusing atoms together
Forming newer elements
Elements that make you and me
And every being on this planet
We are after all atoms
Trying to figure out atoms
A scientist famously said
Annihilation preludes creation
And vice versa
Creation of new particles
And elements go on
Till the stable ones are born
Nature loves stability
But then entropy is a reality too
In the great cosmic churning
Life indeed is a miracle
But then…
One day after millions of years
The sun will die…
It will engulf the earth
Growing into a red giant
Till then we will play perhaps
This game of war and fear
While sending missions into the space
Such contradicting realities of our existence
We needn’t end it all here and now
We are self similar beings
Made of same cosmic dust
It would be such a pity
To cut this fabulous story short!!
PS: Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s book – Poems to Night
Mad Decadence 