Winter

WINTER

The coldest days are here again, I hope they do not last,

I’ve lived for sixty-nine years now, and each year still seems vast.

I’ve fewer years ahead of me than all those that have passed,

I move quite slowly now, but time still seems to go too fast.

We are all travellers through time, at one second per second,

And that’s the speed of time, or so our scientists have reckoned,

Now, if you fall out of a plane, each second rushes by,

But lie awake all night, and they’re so slow you’ll want to die.

The full expanse of time is something that’s hard to believe,

To speak of years in trillions really cannot be conceived,

And still, the universe expands at an increasing rate,

And we can only wonder now about our final fate.

Eventually each star and planet will be torn apart,

It seems there will not be a big crunch and no big restart.

I read that even atoms will be torn to tiny pieces,

And entropy will be the only thing that still increases.

The last remaining black holes will evaporate away,

I heard that this was something Stephen Hawking had to say.

So then the universe will be a vacant lonely place,

With only quantum vacuum occupying all of space.

But there is energy in quantum vacuum, that’s the thing,

And all those virtual particles will rattle, hum and sing.

And there is an infinity of time still yet to come,

Time for an infinite number of things that might be done.

Those endless particles might just assemble as a brain,

It might be yours, and you will think that you’re alive again,

Your senses could then make you feel just fine in every way,

And you could have your time again, on one more Winter’s day.