Wherefrom Sprung the Boundless Night?

Wherefrom Sprung the Boundless Night?

If the universe is boundless and in each and all directions,

There are twinkling stars and quasars, solar flares and mass ejections,

Why does endless dark pervade the sky instead of endless light?

If the cosmos deigns to be so, wherefrom sprung the boundless night?

‘Tis a question Olbers pondered in his famous paradox,

Curiosity is only human, ask Pandora’s box,

Apropos, if one should care to read the actual Greek mythos,

One would learn Pandora’s box was but a jar or, in Greek, pithos.

What a history to study! What a world around us calling!

O to live and die, and never wonder why is quite appalling.

Let us muse and wonder; squeeze the beauty from this mortal sham!

Let us give new meaning to the phrase: “I think, therefore I am”.

Did you know, perchance, that pineapples take two whole years to grow?

Or a polar bear can hide its nose to blend in with the snow?

The mantis shrimp, whose clicking claw can go off like a gun,

Creates a spark that’s hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Molecules in vapour huddle tight as they condense,

So the droplets formed of liquid water are, by far, more dense,

Yet when cooling further still they form a crystal, keeping distance,

Hence the floating ice that seems to sidestep physical consistence.

The bacteria in our bodies may outnumber human cells,

And the compounds they create from sweat provoke those awful smells.

But you partner will not mind at all because of oxytocin,

Which enables love, combined with dopamine and serotonin.

Regard the brains that pilot planes and fabricate vaccines;

That provide a higher yield of crop by modifying genes,

But before you think that humankind outshines all other species:

Scientists once manufactured knives from frozen human faeces.

For each new bold endeavour we must contemplate the cost,

Every week around 1000 species are forever lost.

Now the mighty tiger even finds itself in dire straits,

There are fewer wild across the world than captive in the States.

There’s a wealth of knowledge one can learn that’s bound to cause a stir,

Helicopter is a word that’s formed of “helico” and “pter"!

What we call “French fries” are Belgian and Big Ben is but a bell,

Mexicans and Guatemalans are Americans as well.

Mona Lisa has a mailbox in the Louvre for her love letters,

And the famous Caravaggio lived in and out of fetters.

‘Twas the view from an asylum that inspired Starry Night.

Monet’s best work surely benefitted from his failing sight.

William Shakespeare gave our language words like dewdrop and distasteful,

Sanctimonious and fathomless, compact, enrapt, disgraceful.

So, in light of all his genius, you might find it absurd,

That his wife and children could not read or write a single word.

In the region spanning North East China to Uzbekistan,

Data shows that eight percent of males descend from Genghis Khan,

And in all of Europe, up in Finland down to southern Spain,

Every person has an ancestor in fecund Charlemagne.

If you opened every atom and removed the space from each,

Then the human population could be kept inside a peach.

The big bang, in fact, was quiet, but created radiation,

That we see and hear in static when we change the TV station.

So in answer to the question: “wherefrom sprung the boundless night?”

If you wish to know why jet-black soaks the sky instead of white,

Fan your inner flames and prove your wish to know without a doubt,

Ask yourself the question loud and clear, and go find it out.