Made of Everthing

when i was in high school

my teacher told me

“The amount of matter in the universe has

remained the same since the Big Bang.”

and then i started to think...

 

in all the millennia that this planet has existed

we have gained

nothing…

not a fleck

not a grain

not even a single

breath

the universe has simply been vacuum-sealed

just a coiling kaleidoscope that has repeated

re-recorded

reordered itself

a million billion trillion gazillion times over

 

that means every baby

every human

is a unique concoction

a brew, a mixtape

of all that has come before

made from molecules of Gandhi and stardust

and meteors and volcanic ash

and colloidal silver and da Vinci’s tears

and the same darkness that

fills the cosmos

is between, and inside,

our own atoms

 

when you know this

you suddenly see the bustling city streets

the gardens of orchids and roses

the children playing

in the rain

as a phenomenon

this assemblage of humanity is by means of a

starburst constellation

families are brilliant, unorthodox-shaped nebulae

finding the one you love is a galaxy being born

we are all bizarre, exclusive, wandering

mini-universes

we have never been

before

and we will never be

again

 

the sheer exuberance

the unlikely experience of our existences

the honor of merely being

alive

 

they will never be able to make you again

don’t you dare waste a second

thinking something better will happen

when it ends

 

don’t you dare

 
This poem is about: 
Our world
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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