n.i.m.b.u.s.

Fermi's tulips

a field of tulips in Amsterdam,
and a field of tulips in Tehran,
are impossibly distanced,
yet they both exist within the one world,

rooted to the ground,
with no means of communication,
essentially invisible to each other --
the two fields will likely never meet,

it is no surprise that they consider themselves alone,
in the great expanse of the garden they consider infinite.
their colossal garden teems with everything,
except other tulips.

several tulips grow beside a busy highway,
they are surrounded by hundreds of moving things,
they see lifeless masses and objects rushing past them,
but they see no other tulips - no other life

the tulips believe they are alone.

oh, oblivious tulips,
how lonely you must be,
staring up at the stars,
and seeing only the inanimate.