heat death elegy

Sandhya Ganesan

after “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

you wave to the universe and it doesn’t notice. it’s not your fault.
the universe doesn’t understand the thermodynamics of hello.

every action has an equal opposite reaction. somewhere a black hole sighs
for one last glimpse of light. it has never before been the consumed thing.

the universe simply wants a glass of chilled water. it has never told
anybody this. absolute zero: an ice cube left out in the sun to melt.

entropy until equilibrium. stars hold with those who favor fire but physics
has never taken into account desire. relativity has never considered sleep.

when you look up, you see no light. it’s not your fault. light faltered well
before
god lost his game of dice and the universe gave up its pretense of chance.

you wave to the universe. it decides ice would suffice and suffuses itself with
it.
no one notices. no one waves back. no one knows how.