Quintessence

 Quintessence!

Three sovereigns of a land danced today

around Dark Energy in the universe.

I went looking for Dracula and Darth Vader

but found instead an accelerating universe

beyond light speed

expanding each day

through a string septet play.

I thought we were star stuff

as Orpheus said

not invisible brane worlds

strung between quantum vibrations

vacuumed in space

with measurements that even

uncle Albert couldn't add up.

And his cosmological constant

is speeding away.

Quintessence!

exotic, mysterious inexplicable.

Something moving

in empty space

that holds the stars and moon in place.

Photography by Ken Dickinson
Paintings by Rucha Shirsalkar

Note: 

In physics, Quintessence is a proposed form of dark energy, suggested as an explanation of the accelerating rate of expansion of the universe. Quintessence differs from the cosmological explanation of dark energy in that it is dynamic; it changes over time, unlike the cosmological constant which does not change.

In literature, Quintessence is the queen of a land of speculative science in Rabeliais' novels Gargantua and Pantagruel.  In Rabaleais' time, a fifth element quinte, beyond earth, air, fire and water, was supposed to be the ethereal substance of which the stars were composed.

François Rabelais was a French Renaissance writer, physician, humanist, monk and Greek scholar. His novels present the comic and satirical story of the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel and various companions, whose travels and adventures are a way to make fun of the follies and superstitions of the times.