Heat Death of the Universe

Alicia Sometimes

space    
  stretches
space

as gravity wrestles expansion

we are stories of cycles:
fluctuating oceans of atoms

shawls of stars gathering
in luminous rich galaxies

dark matter embracing
as dark energy hastens

the universe — 13.8 billion years old
its radius 46.5 billion light-years and

e    x    t    e    n    d    i    n    g

one day everything will dissipate
frayed fingertips unable to touch

no cannonades of new stars
forming — a fugue of entropy

this thermal equilibrium
the lens of a burnt fuse

heat — disordered energy
harbinger of eternal cold

furrows of trembling matter blurring
further and further in steady black ink

spilling into echoes of the void

slow sleep

of disappearing

tombs

The Science

Heat death of the universe is one possible hypothesis on the ultimate end of the universe where entropy will not be able to increase. This thermodynamic equilibrium will mean no more heat transfers can take place so all forms of energy will not work in our universe. The second law of thermodynamics states that the amount of entropy in a system must always increase. For heat death to occur the universe would need to be infinite.

The Poet

Alicia Sometimes is an Australian writer and broadcaster. She has performed her spoken word and poetry at many venues, festivals, and events around the world. She is director and co-writer of the science-poetry planetarium shows, ‘Elemental’ and ‘Particle/Wave’. Her TedxUQ talk in 2019 was about combining art with science. In 2020 she won the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize.

Next poem: Invitation by Alexander Cartwright