lone galaxy

***

The expanding universe
and the unwinding time.

The people of a trillion years hence
in the lone galaxy
will study the infinite layers,
uncover the pottery of stone and metal
and ancient carbon fibers.

The people of a trillion years hence
will rediscover
the fractal multiverse.

They will discover
that most universes are young
that statistically
their life is just a poem
and the possibilities are endless.

The old woman's eye
recognizes a sparkle
in a battered girl --
the friend of the dragons she knows yet not.

In the old man's furrowed face
a glimpse of a gifted boy's magic
and the long process of boring through
his shadow's bitter disenchantment.

These will echo in the simulations,
in the stories as deep as life.