The One from FAWM 2023 by Gary McGath

A giant black hole in the multiverse,
At first compact, low entropy, and hot,
Had come to being as a living thing,
A single entity that felt and thought.

It slowly came to understand itself,
Though it could never know from where it came.
It told itself, "I think, therefore I am."
Its self and universe were both the same.

In looking back to find its origin
It saw there'd been a singularity.
In looking far ahead at what would come,
It saw that it would face mortality.

Its universe, itself, was growing vast,
And at the same time it was growing cold.
It still would have a long lifetime ahead,
But in the end, its fate was to grow old.

An era passed and then it was in shreds,
A single mind it could no longer be.
A quarter second's life, and it was gone,
And nothing but its ghosts today are we.

• Acoustic
• filk
• science fiction
• Boston