No There There?
“Scientists announced … that they were perhaps one step closer to understanding why the universe contains something rather than nothing.”
—The New York Times
Before we peered with Hubble eyes
immensely deep into the skies
perhaps we never even thought
that nothing might have been our lot.
The something that we always saw
inspired investigative awe,
and data now are pointing to
the facts that led to me and you.
Yet certain contradictions glare,
especially in the White House, where
a vast, mysterious void exists
that puzzles even scientists.
Barbara Loots has published poems for five decades in literary magazines and anthologies, including The Random House Treasury of Light Verse, Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle, and The Whirlybird Anthology of Kansas City Writers. Her collections are Road Trip, Windshift (reviewed here) and The Beekeeper and other love poems, all from Kelsay Books. A section of Beekeeper entitled “What’s so funny?” owes a lot to the editors of Light. What she really thinks can be found on her blog at barbaraloots.com.