The Big Ones found a way
to create tiny suns of
their own, pocketing fusion
into buildings all along the
coast, pumping excess heat into
the seas. Celebrations abounding
over the endless energy allowing
them to create a new world.
They harvested protein from
vats, they built enormous radio
antennae to see the universe
in different ways, and maybe
even listen to see if other
voices might be calling across
the void.
Escalated discovery led to
artificial moons in the pink sky
and Big Ones in orbit. Their
dreams evolved to desire
going farther, faster.
They searched their entire system,
found nothing so much as
a lonely microbe among the rock
and ice; three gas giants and
sixteen barren, cold moons.
They searched for so long
that they forgot what they
were searching for.
Some still listened to the emptiness
until the world began to age past
recognition. Evolution changed
them beyond need for science, or
philosophy, or history.
The Big Ones weren’t so big now.
The Numinous Cosmos 