Where Is Everyone

Two trillion galaxies Give or take Each one stuffed with stars Each star maybe holding A planet like this one Spinning in the habitable sweet spot

And silence Total silence

Where is everyone

We've been listening for sixty years Pointing dishes at the sky Running the math over and over And the math says They should be everywhere

Where is everyone

Maybe they're too far Maybe they're too different Maybe they burned through their window The way a match burns through a stick

Or maybe Maybe We're early

Maybe in a universe fourteen billion years old Life that asks questions Is still rare Still new Still figuring out the basics

Where is everyone

And if we're early If we're one of the first To look up and wonder

Then we carry responsibility We carry the wonder

We are the signal

Where is everyone Where is everyone

Maybe they're coming Maybe they're a billion years behind us Maybe right now On some rocky world Orbiting a younger sun Something is crawling out of the water For the first time

And in a billion years They'll point a dish at our star And hear Whatever we leave behind

Where is everyone We're here We're here We're here