The Whole She-bang


          Tonight I heard astronomers 
          discussing the origin of the Universe 
          pointing out that she is actually 
          ninety percent hydrogen gas, 
          and saying that the 'big bang' 
          [revising the favorite theory] 
          maybe wasn't the first. 

          Did Edwin Hubble 
          theorize that his bright constant 
          would embrace our mysteries 
          long after his present incarnation, 
          recording deep exposures in space, 
          providing the means to show 
          that this 15 billion year exhalation 
          was perhaps preceded by collapse, 
          and that by an even more ancient primordial breathing? 

          This living creation of our vast regal heritage of black holes, 
          our peering back along curving lines of space-time 
          and scintillating nebulae, 
          in and into the living breath of this universe, 
          has brought me to the brink 
          of an immeasurable certainty 
          that every molecule of my tears 
          and bones and flesh in these mirrored landscapes were all here 
          before, each holding a silvered memory of every 
          laughing tide that ever swelled 
          beneath the sapphire pull of that long look 
          you gave me, warm in the grip of a new 
          dawn a hundred billion years ago. 


          Richard Harrison



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