If There’s an Outside, It’s Not Clearly Interfering

Using whatever appendages
Work for you, sense whatever you can
Of the contrasting ways the waves move,

As reflections, as incandescence.
Incandescence lights up from within,
Requires fuel, consumes it, and sends out

Radiations in all directions.
Reflections are all interruptions
Of incandescent radiations,

Absorbing some and bouncing some back
In differently angled directions.
And that’s it. That’s the way the waves move

Anywhere near or far, anciently
Or recently, given any means
You’ve been able to use to sense them.

Notice anything interesting,
Anything missing? There’s no outside
Source to any of them, no great lamp

Or oscillator that’s positioned
To one side of the cosmos, pouring
Energy in, no external source.

All the small pots of incandescence
And all the supermassive black holes
Lie scattered around in burning fields,

Nothing entering, nothing peering
Into them, poking or stirring them.
Reflect on this. All burns from within.