A Jump-Off Place

The people in the Middle Ages knew
the earth is round, but what they didn’t know
is that the cosmos swells like sourdough
and that a time would come when men peer through
thirteen billion years to see the glow
of fuzzy islands near the very brink
of all creation. Who would ever think
we’d hear its echo on the radio?

Yet, though we’ve savored soupçons of that drink
distilled from centuries of observation,
the sudden knowledge of acceleration
has hurled us back to blackness in a blink.
Dark energy, comprising most of space,
means all we’ve learned is but a jump-off place.

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(Originally appeared in Mindflights.)