Cosmology

"Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse."
-T.S. Eliot

On the old map, the Earth was our mother.
Her womb was the sea, and the sky-father fucked her
On the backs of four elephants standing on a tortoise.

In the old paradigm, stars ejaculated matter
Upon Earth's primordial soup, where,
Life sprang forth as cosmic accident.

But notions of causality have disappeared
From our map of the cosmos.
On the new map observation affects reality

And the relation of position
to momentum is uncertain. In other words,
We are off the charts, and here there be dragons.

On the old map all revolved around the Ego.
In the beginning the child knew only self,
And the rhythmic pulse of wet warm darkness.

Slowly, muffled sounds penetrated ignorance,
And an awareness of otherness grew, until
Light burst forth, accompanied by pain.

Then the view shifted and there were other bodies,
Strange attractions and invisible bonds
That redefined the focus. The world is not flat.

The universe is expanding, but will collapse, and
One learned that neither Earth nor Sun
Are the center of the universe.

To read the new map one must unlearn such nonsense,
All is relative, and the geo and heliocentric are
Just more-complicated models, no less correct.

All is uncertainty but observation affects outcome,
Nailing down the multiverse to a single path.
On the new map, perception is reality.

I revolve around you; and you, I- even as
Gravity takes its toll and we grow older and feebler.
On the new map time and distance are the variables,

Maps, however, are just representations
of reality. Truth has a way of slipping
the bonds of conception.

Beneath the fabric of the universe is the sublime,
And behind the infinite, and the infinitesimal: the Divine.
The sub-atomic and galactic hint of grand design.

And though time flows differently for us all,
It seems to move solely and inexorably in
one direction. The only constant is speed.