End of the Universe
Janet Kuypers
spoken 10/9/23, completed 10/10/23
I submit:
Us science types look for theories
to explain what will happen to the Universe...
I mean, we come up with theories —
that’s what we science types do —
we come up with these theories,
and our job is to prove or disprove.
And when it comes to postulating how the Universe will end,
one theory is that...
Even though the Universe is expanding now,
gravity will reign supreme, and the Universe
will collapse everything together again in the Big Crunch —
before another Big Bang starts it all over again.
Another theory is that the expansion of our Universe
will reign supreme over gravity,
the weakest of our four fundamental forces —
everything will lose more and more energy,
dissolving into nothingness
Now, this would mean that energy —
like radiation, it’s light waves would
s t r e t c h,
become visible light until it’s
s t r e t c h e d,
becoming ultra-violet light
And if the Universe kept expanding like this,
with this energy,
and all this once light —
it could, potentially, eventually
s t r e t c h
into audio waves...
do our human frailties
make the poet,
philosopher
anthropomorphize
the science,
for
If this is what becomes of energy,
would the Universe
suddenly
be
very noisy
very dark,
and very noisy
Would the decibels go so up
as the Universe makes
a blanketing,
overwhelming, post-
matter-shattering
series of sirens
would it be
a cacophony of chaos
or...
Because of that ever-expanding Universe,
would the noises be so far away
that they would only be faint pleas
separated by
no-longer-existing light-years
but...
would sounds be separated
by ever-increasing parsecs
so, instead of that cacophony
would the ever-increasing space
force these outstretched pleas,
these tiny bits of energy
travelling through space*
alone
getting
more
and more
lonely
would these tiny waves of energy
travelling through space —
would they even make a sound
if no one is there to hear them
* from “Communication”
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