This Picture of It Being Simple and Well Ordered Has Been Really Tossed Out in the Past Couple of Years

It’s been a hundred years since Hubble
Measured Andromeda’s distance and
Realized the Milky Way was not

The universe. This giant spiral
Is just one among many, many
Galaxies. So, people swallowed that.

Humanity strives to name the ways
Humanity is exceptional,
When mostly humanity isn’t,

But maybe you ought to be impressed
By how you roll with cosmologies.
There’s been so many, many of them,

And although deep-rooted religion
Can compel a vestigial belief
In an outmoded cosmology

A few centuries, reinventing
The nature of the whole universe
Is pretty regular human sport.

Don’t expect any picture to last.
Soon enough, data will be sifted
And all your understanding shifted,

And . . . most people will be fine with that.
That’s impressive, in a sense, and weird—
Your new everything every few years.