did you know

that an atom

is a galaxy?

the nucleus, dense with balancing

neutrons and humming with

protons, is an infinitesimal star.

and swelling around it, like nebula gasses

or hurling, erratic planets

are electrons, trapped in the pull

of the star.

 

i realized the beauty of this

not so long ago;

this parallel tickled me,

and i thought it funny

how the universe repeats itself

over

and over

and over again,

but we don't seem to notice.

we carry on, twisting ourselves into

material anxieties and long work days and arguments and frustrations and dark cold nights

but breathe, please, and slow down

for what i am about to tell you

(what i discovered about myself)

can only be told through one voice,

and scientific jargon

and a stiff back

cannot do this justice.

 

because even though there are not enough metaphors

and similes and rhymes and variations of meter and parallel

structure to describe the overwhelming beauty of this

discovery,

poetry, my friend,

is the closest way to reach it

 

(but the truest way to achieve

total understanding of this beauty

is to see it in yourself.)

 

an atom

is a galaxy,

a shaking, thundering foundation that's so small

we hardly feel it there,

as electron planets and asteroids

hurl from star to star,

and buzzing gasses

whisper against each other, share their

quarktic secrets;

and in between the dense, pulsing star and the

whirring planets and asteroids is

gaping, yawning space

long stretches of deathly silence

dark,

and empty.

 

but galaxies, if you have enough of them,

create one unified verse,

one melody whose euphonious

vibrations trill and thum and throb,

one singing heart whose voice

is no more than a mere murmur against our ears, and yet,

to the fabric of space-time,

it is the loudest victory cry,

the sounds of collisions

and fusions and pitching electrons and the rumbling bass of the nuclei

are the basis of an orchestra with no equal.

this unified verse wails and wails and wails

beaming with pride

of its mere existence.

 

did you know

that an atom

is a galaxy?

and if you have enough galaxies

you can create a unified verse.

a universe.

 

i have some good news for you, my friend.

you

(yes, you)

are made of about

seven

billion

billion

billion

atoms,

(give or take a few)

(that's seven followed by twenty-seven zeros, by the way)

and that means

you

(yes, you)

are made of seven billion billion billion galaxies

and because you

(yes, you)

are made of seven billion billion billion galaxies,

you

are a universe.

(yes, you.)

 

now i want you

(yes, you)

to revel in your beauty,

because i'm sure you've seen some galaxies already.

their grandeur, the awe they inspire, their fiery pride that

instills some fearful respect in your heart when you feel small,

and their impossible colors that they present against a dark,

empty space.

you

(yes, you)

are made up of the sounds of collisions,

of fusions and electrons slinging through empty space against the

rumbling bass of nuclei and you

(yes, you)

are the result of an orchestra with no equal.

your unified verse

wails and wails and wails and screams with pride

of your mere existence.

 

and just think,

how amazing it is to be a universe

that shares so intimately a space

with other universes,

about seven billion other universes, in fact

(give or take a few.)

and it's not just one kind of universe,

it's the tree universes that share so intimately the ground

that intertwine their roots with each other like laced fingers;

it's the cloud universes that seem to melt away against the sky or rumble

you to the bone like the bass of trillions of trillions of nuclei;

it's the flowing air universe that we occupy every day, it's the flowing air universe

that we move with our very breath, creating waves like the way the

ocean universe lurches forwards and crashes against the

shore universe.

it's the universe

that many other universes also occupy,

it's the home of the star universes, the moon universes, the nebula universes, the

human universes.

so it is not just you

(yes, you)

singing alone.

you are part of an overwhelming chorus

that every person and plant and animal and great shining star

harmonizes with, you are part of the sound

that lets every single thing know

we exist

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

and this, my friend,

is what it means to be a poet.

without poetry i could never describe to you

(yes, you)

the outstanding honor and

beauty it is to

simply

be.

 

---

 

A/N: Thank you for reading. Pictured with this poem is actually Earth, with the position of every known piece of space debris that has orbited it.