Held breath

 

To bring a universe into focus,
infinity must strike a deal with the finite.

The boundless cannot be known if it remains everywhere,
always,
and all at once.
It is too loud to be heard.
Too vast to be viewed.

So, it contracts.
It condenses.

The atom is the signature on that cosmic contract.

Without this concession,
there is no friction,
no focus,
no fabric to reality.

Existence would remain an unwritten page 
a formless sea of absolute potential 
where nothing can happen 
because everything already exists.

By settling for the small,
the infinite finds a way 
to squeeze through the doorway of the physical world.
It pins itself down into a tiny, vibrating knot of matter,
just so the grand picture can finally be painted.

It suggests that the smallest piece of us 
is not a building block of the universe,
but the entire universe,
holding its breath.