We fly away from that initial Bang,
and yet we cling together.  Gravity
pulls even protons into stellar gangs,
pressing them to fuse so brilliantly

they burn and light the sky for many eons,
waiting for their neighbors to explode
and spew abroad their heaviest accretions
to bond into a planetary lode.

And as the comets crash upon those worlds,
on some a sea may form and nurture life
which turns organic gases into swirls
of oxygen and compost – sugars rife –

that sink under the weight of other layers
until their fire is stored in fossil form
to wait until discovered by surveyors
who dig it up and burn it, trading harm

for profit, thus dispersing to the air
the carbon that our ancestors accreted,
now threatening to bake our planet bare.
At least H. sap. is soon to be deleted!

11 March 2023