Cosmic Contrapunto

Cosmic Contrapunto

Quantum tunnel universe,
a spongy space-time scene,
be here or there or anywhere
but never in between.

Reality is made of quarks
at subatomic scales,
and everything is relative
where intuition fails.

Gluon bits appear in pairs,
effect without causation.
random popping particles,
the basis of creation?

Photons beam in shining waves
til slits collapse them down,
duality's an endless ring
of who spins what around.

Some particles can mate for life,
paired up eternally,
entangled souls in perfect sync
though measured separately.

Newton's norms were sacred law
for human minds and hearts,
til Einstein rolled the quantum dice,
upsetting apple carts.

Time's eye dilates at speed of light,
observers race ahead.
The quicker clock lags far behind,
slow motion wins instead.

Space and time grow intertwined,
expanding with a bang.
Gravity pulls puppet strings
from which all matter hangs.

Time expands and stars contract,
black holes leave space behind.
Horizons lure the light inside,
where truth is undefined.

Dark matter cloaked in ebon black,
shows not a glimmer's gleam.
Yet gravity can't hold its own
without this stuff unseen.

Such subtleties may seem to lie
beyond the grasp of man,
but questions map our destiny,
we think, therefore we can.

Author's note: ▼

The universe is a weird and wonderful place. Newton's familiar laws hold at human scale, but the quantum realm and the cosmic expanse are very different. Einstein's theory of relativity upset Newton's apple cart and reality hasn't been the same since. The particle/wave duality of light has long been shown experimentally. Evidence of black holes, the big bang, and time dilation have been observed by astronomers. Quantum tunneling, particle entanglement, quarks, and gluons have been demonstrated by experimental physicists. But don't worry if you can't understand the poem, we don't fully understand the physics either!

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