After the Bang

This poem was inspired by an excellent Horizon programme on BBC2

Published in the e-zine "Until the Stars Burn Out" in September 2018.


 

A cloud of
lonely hydrogen
atoms floating in a hazy fog.
Gravity the matchmaker
that brings them together;
in the absolute coldness
of space they bind in pairs;
their numbers grow as
the pressure builds
so too the heat
more gas arrives
falling into the protostar
releasing energy; more heat
and then

LIGHT

Across the void
the universe is lucent;
illuminations like giant glow-worms
in an infinite cave
burning blue
the ultraviolet piercing
the opaque vacuum
as stars are truly born
then quickly die
their glorious heat
fusing atoms
carbon, oxygen, silicon
then exploding;
hypernova scattering
their bounty
of the heavy elements
from which everything is made
concocted in the primordial forge
of the first stars
bringing into being
our sun, our planet and us
for we are stardust
from after the Bang.

Tim Fellows 2017