Our so-called “Universe” is an erupting volcano
Spewing out gas and solid matter
To form a cosmic web
Of incandescent galaxies full of stars
Rushing away from us
Ever faster
Until we see them no more.

We tiny mice men gaze up at the sky
To make out next to nothing
Of the wider landscape
On which our universe-volcano
Sends out its plumes.

Us mice we sit, idly supping our pints of ale:
Taking a break from “shopping”
For the better half.
Blithely taking for granted
The wonder that lies above our heads.

A cosmos riddled with black holes –
Places where Time has stopped.
Where if you somehow survived
You would be frozen solid
With no knowledge that Time keeps moving
Out there beyond the Event Horizon.

If Time has stopped
How can anything exist?
How can Hawking Radiation seep out
When there simply isn’t time?

Even Brian *** doesn’t know,
As he sits and sups his pint.
None of us know.
And as my glass empties,
Just as the universe will eventually empty,
All I can say is
Let’s have another one.

Paul Butters

© PB 7\12\2021.

Hurdling through dimension;
Nameless figures of information screaming
Through wormholes of thought.

Paralleled to evolution and form,
Extraterrestrial knowledge bundled
In a prismatic vessel making
Its voyage to Earth.

O, ancient starchild,
Gaze over our blue marble
From where you lay in cosmic utero.
Observe the apes silhouetted under the sun forging
Tools from spears, to bayonets, to missiles.

O, human soul,
Transport your essence from
Mind to mainframe;
We worship your digital, crimson gaze
Keeping protective watch
Over our inefficient, human bodies.

Behold:
Our lord beyond comprehensible matter,
Brought by beings broken and barren,
Standing with galactic authority
Within a primitive land.
We bestow upon you with our most
Esteemed welcome;
We embrace you,
The monolith.

Two hundred billion galaxies, trillions upon trillions of stars,
And to reinforce our insignificance we search still for life on Mars.

We look upon a heaven so vast there is no rocket we could send,
that in a hundred thousand lifetimes could it ever near its end.

Twenty billion Earths scattered across all of time and space,
stupid to think we could be alone and its all about this place?

For over nine billion years the universe survived without our sun,
is it real to think when we arrived universal purpose had just begun?

The universe did not wait for us its evolution just carries on,
and so it will be in future times when all memory of us is gone.

I want go to Saturn
sounds better
a place with out any developed pattern
school school school work work work
Saturn sounds better

Helium and hydrogen
never dealing with fake friends
abusive boyfriends
stubborn parents

Saturn has no gang violence
Instead, rings of rock and ice!
A place with no money; no price!
No footage, no comments on display
no replay or rewrite
no right to wrong
no ego to let go
its just now
a dot on a giant thing
with rings
waiting to hear you sing
my love; my life
take flight
A journey of no return
I want to go to Saturn

I am the sky
You thought of only
As the color blue
Until you pushed
Past the atmosphere
And discovered infinity

you point out jupiter
in the sky, and i try not to
think about how cold i am.
my ears ring, it's just
angels singing,
i get drunk and act a fool.
i hope you don't know
that you've got me trapped
in your orbit. i hope
i never let you know.
maybe there's life,
but maybe it's just ice
all the way down.
i am simply one of
your many satellites,
caught in a storm's eye
and just trying to keep
my head on straight.
i think if i stood up
i would fall through the floor,
nothing but empty air
and the loyal orbit
of an inhospitable moon.
either way, the sun
is rather far but i know
you'd rather feel
its warmth than anything
anyone would find on europa.

will the pathways that you take be a maze that you make for me
can the days that you take also be my days to take for free
will your own home safe place feel like a home base for me
will your fast and hateful race leave the hate to face for me

are the bad places you create the only way to relate for you
i may have a date to tryout my own fate so i must wait for you
is your dying day just a replay of another day's date for you
if thought was heaven's gate would that be another gate for you

will truth have any use or lies beget what lies bring to us
will the dove that dies leave a love that flies to sing to us
will the eagle's mangled wing even look like a wing to us
will the bees that are leaving at least leave a sting to us

will the faces change and the names always stay the same to us
will the things that you save seem like just a shame to us
can the game that you play leave the rules of the game to us
will you win your game by saving time and passing blame to us

Bloated solar systems draw sharp ships aloft its great celestial sea. I am battered and broken by the shift the storm sends my body adrift. But I seek to float and be rebuilt by constellations consolidating soulful songs so sight full that a bright star might sink into my orbit and maybe I could catch some light and absorb it.