Here is the record of the last puff of air
released hot in the icy atmosphere
denouement of the last sentient being
cradled in the nook of Orion’s Arm
Milky Way wasteland at the end of everything
as the galaxy dissolves, denatures into elements
Collapsing 113.61 billion years from the beginning
bearing witness to cycles of life and death
seedlings’ searching for light and warmth in the dark
recoiling to the soil as the sun fades
hearth fires extinguished as the universe
accelerated expanding and abandoning life
as every moment became the past
We were left behind in the aging light
the dimming before, burnt to an ember
Can it know this is the last thought?
Will it conceive of the endless
thoughts that preceded it or mourn
that no thought will ever follow?
Perhaps it will be seized with
existential dread at the horror
or be rapturous with numinous delight,
assured that in any number of
infinite, finite universes, it is reborn
or seek succor in the infinite continuity,
the drumbeat certainty of algorithmic truths
Imagining a mathematical elegance that lives on
infinite paradoxes ensconced in a perfect sphere
transfinite numbers, where subset and set
share the same boundless count
enabling what is otherwise impossible
Light was never fast enough to save us.
Its tendrils fray at the edge of knowing
its reach collapses, finite –
yet somewhere, perhaps in the
interstices between darkness and no-thing,
an echo remains
Chromapoetica 
Humans have a difficult time imagining celestially, in accord with most of what is now known about the universe and its inexorable motions. Big Bang, entropy, multiversals, chaos, collapse and rebirth — all captivating idea for writers, all ending with the huge question mark of finite mortal minds. The Anthropocene may resolve the question of how life will evolve in 113 billion years (it won’t or can’t, not with sentience), but perhaps it isn’t life or light but the weave of energy that will. Can our living participation in that mystery live and yearn accordingly? All these thoughts arise from your glittery exploration. Well done Anna –
Among all the brilliant imagery, love this line: “We were left behind in the aging light ….”
I love this… how hard it is for us to comprehend the immensity of the universe, yet the math makes it precise enough to describe in great detail. What we know though, that a human lifetime is way too short to really see the changes.
A most interesting poem of universal speculation. As we look into space and wonder it leaves us feeling very small and just dust in the wind!