Or Else

Only if the gods can find
Peace in themselves can they help—

The divine can’t redesign
What was never by design.

Agency emerged from life,
And life emerged from the stones,

And the stones cooled from the stars,
And the stars fused from the dark,

So agency was always
Latent in these stars and dark.

If what is latent can calm,
Can change its own minds, we will

Find ourselves somewhere other—
Other physics, other lives,

Somewhere other than ourselves,
Beings being someone else.