Just Live -
We’ve domesticated ourselves
There are no new frontiers
Nowhere left to escape to
And almost no way to switch gears.
Now jailed with society and tech
We haven’t lived naturally for 5,000 years
If only we could settle a few other worlds
Then we could finally allay our fears.
Perhaps another 5,000 years, then, finally
The places we will have went
Now made verdant and blue
Maybe then we could start to relent.
But not even then, for we’ll not be satiated
As the universe expands too much for man
With galaxies drifting over the far horizon –
We’ll have to gather up as many as we can.
But then, we’ll look and see the coldness
Trillions of years, with all the work done
We’ll try to escape the inevitable entropy –
And start anew in a younger one.
Then, finally, with nowhere else to go –
Other universes not even being enough
We’ll decry unreachable God
While being ourselves still flawed.
And we’ll wonder why we could never get
Back to our primeval grace
When all we had to do
Was live it… in the first place.
ER Poem 3, 14 February 2023