Shades of Nothing
By John Herlihy

Nothing wants to become something,
Something dreads to become nothing.
Like silence, nothing reflects eternal absence;
Like sound, something reflects fleeting presence.
Shades of nothing take on unexpected meaning,
Shadows that become images of color and light,
Filling the universal void with untold miracles,
That prove to be a rapturous sight to behold,
Raising questions on open lips of things untold,
Why has something arisen out of nothing?

Clear the mind and ponder the question a minute:
An eternal void yawned sleepily within the depths,
Of sheer nothingness, alone without any steps,
That might lead to the emergence of something,
Anything that might shatter the unholy silence,
Into scattered fragments that suddenly matter,
As something crawls over the horizon of nothing,
With shades of meaning that turn into something,
Filling the entire universe with an incredible sight,
Narratives of meaning full of emotion and might.

Once there was infinite space characterized by nothing,
That blossomed into life as a miracle of something.