H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

ANTLER

Hard to Believe

Learning every planet began

as a microscopic grain of dust,

Learning in endless space and time

one dust mote clung to another

and then another and another

and more and more came together

through space and time

forming an infinitesimal planetesimal

then a planetoid then a proto-planet

then a planet and so on

which became the Earth

And learning astrophysicists learned

the earth collects

300,000 tons of dust a year

as it travels on its endless journey

through space and time

that’s always new and so on

And learning the Solar System is more dust motes

than planets

and if you put

all the interplanetary dust motes together

you’d create a sphere

1000 times larger

than all the planets put together,

And learning every dust mote orbits the Sun

as much as every planet

and rotates around itself

just like every planet does,

and has day and night

just like every planet does

And given the 300,000 tons of dust motes

the Earth collects every year

It means in a billion years the Earth

will have taken on

300 trillion tons of dust

not to mention quintessential infinitesimal planetesimals

And figuring if the diameter of the Earth is 8000 miles now

in a billion years it will be

16,000 miles wide

So the Earth and planets will continue to grow

like snowballs rolled in wet snow

as they pick up and accumulate

more and more

dust motes

through space and time

for the space and time

they move through

is always new—

no end to dust motes in Infinity!

Hard to believe? Hard to believe!

You mean if endless time and space lie ahead

and there’s no end of getting bigger and bigger

as the Sun makes up it’s mind not to explode

or go out

for another trillion years

and the black hole at the center of the galaxy

pledges not to suck everything in for a zillion years

eventually

the planets will get so huge

most of the Solar System is solid rock

and eventually a time will come

yes a time will come when

the Solar System becomes solid rock

and the Solar Systems that become solid rock

come together like the dust motes did

till everything comes together

and keeps coming together

till the entire Universe

is Solid Rock!

[Originally published in NHS 2009, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs09/Antler.htm.]