One of my best friends

            Just so happens to be

            An astrophysicist

            Who naturally likes to talk about

                The universe and time

 

            Like when it all began,

            Which he was pretty confident

            Occurred some fourteen billion years ago

 

            Give or take

 

            The topic got me woozy

            Especially when I compared

            My lifespan up to date

 

            Not so my mate

            Who relishing in paradox

            Convincingly commenced to show that

            Past and future

            Were impossible to prove

            And that the present was itself

            An evanescence these impossibilities

            Were built upon

 

            I mused . . .

 

            And found my antidote

            In words:

 

            They didn’t overturn the

            Truth of insignificance or

            The fact of human death

 

            But they evoked imagined memories

            From the imagined past

            To lend sensation strength

 

            I mourned each passing joy and

            Celebrated every pain

            As if it were my last

 

            And pitied all those not so lucky stars

            Despite their relative longevity and power

            For lacking, unlike us, the faculty

            To crowd into an instant

            As I hold you near

            All the history of our desires

            And the burning wish

            With every dearest kiss

            For more