I read to the bug.
When galaxies — galaxies! — collide,
a quasar is seared into being,
bright as a trillion suns!
The bug shrugged.
Quasar P172+18 sent its light to us
13 billion years ago! It arrived today!
The bug did not look up.
Our Milky Way galaxy will collide
with the Andromeda galaxy in
5 billion years!
The bug yawned.
Where is wisdom?
In the orbit of the wee bug,
immersed in so small a self,
or in the soul-freezing vastness
of what is
and has been
and will be?
I do not comprehend either.
With thanks to Ashley Strickland, space and science writer for CNN and her article “Solving the mystery of the most powerful objects in the universe.” I did get the feeling that the bug wondered why he wasn’t mentioned in her article.