Galaxies Colliding

When galaxies collide,
It takes a long time.

Sometimes one gets trapped in the other’s enormity,
And can never pull away again.

Sometimes neither one survives.

Sometimes gravity knocks planets around;
Down black rabbit holes like cosmic billiards,
Splashing through nebulae,
And smearing dark matter
On the walls of a chuckling God’s clean living room.

Sometimes suns swap systems,
Asteroids tear through atmospheres
And vaporize crusts into colossal acne pocks
For future life to live within and puzzle over.

But most times,
When galaxies collide
Nothing inside of either one
Ever gets close enough to touch.

Image courtesy of Tom Brown of Baltimore