Noise

Noise

Joanna Yonder 8/3/25

Listening to the science news this morning, I learn that 1,800 Starlink satellites,
orbiting above us in the starless day

are beginning to drown out with leakage of transmissions

all the tiny silences
that have made up, thus far, the giant silence of the universe.

Too many texts and posts and broadcasts.
The chatter of AI. All of it out there, shouting over

the whisper of the eons that we still don’t understand. Cosmic dawn: the first tiny echoes
of the primal stars and galaxies that ever thrummed in space.

It’s so stressful learning about science these days. Beautiful, too, full of new discoveries enabled by our connected globe:

the 15-inch-long stick bug discovered in Australia, heretofore completely undetected by entomologists,
or South American civilizations-
now being uncovered by groundbreaking LIDAR- that we never even knew existed.

Some of it is reckless, adamant and terrifying. Some is joyful, brimming with the hope of
unopened futures.
All of it, together, is just noise.

I power down my laptop. It is time to go outside and listen only to the sounds of August:

tender breezes in the grasses, swallows hunting in the air above.

When it is quiet enough,
there is space
to hear the universe. It is old and wise, unknowable
and still, for now,

coming through loud and clear.