What Has Your Radiance Done For You?
A news response poem
You were there in front of us all along, breaking every record: biggest, brightest, oldest, most radiant. You were hiding in plain sight, burning energy, growing, expanding, releasing heat and light. It’s written that you are the most luminous object ever observed, dazzling, illuminated by matter that heats as it's pulled into you. You are the core of distant, ancient galaxies, a ravenous quasar, powered by a black hole. But you are so hungry. You devour everything in your path. Nothing can fill you. You twist stars into donuts, ripping them to death, crack constellations apart, slurp moons whole like oysters, cleave planets in half and gulp them down, swallowing them one by one, urgently, greedily, always searching for more. Are you lonely out there, radiant quasar, burning so brightly, growing so fast, being the most of everything, leaving no room for anything else to shine? No wonder you were hiding. Who can be happy tearing the stars apart? Who can find joy in eating the sun?
Author’s note: This week, news media reported that astronomers spotted the brightest known object in the universe, a quasar powered by the fastest-growing black hole on record, according to a new study. Initially classified as a star, the quasar managed to hide in plain sight until recently, surprising scientists. You can read about it here: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/world/brightest-quasar-fastest-growing-black-hole-scn/index.html.
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My God. "slurp moons whole like oysters" maybe one of the best lines ever written...
Fascinating! Your imagination leaped to the brink.