[The Pith} In this place, there was no time No space, not in any sense that we know it All chaos and violence. Not even the dimensions were fixed In the Pith But every once and a while (such as a while is in a place with no time) A bubble appears. For a brief instant (such as it is in a time with no place) A quantum zone where the rules are laid out dimensions rolled up and folded time stretches like taffy Is it a second? Or a billion years! To us on the Far Side, it is 10^-43 seconds on the inside, maybe forever The Act of folding space shatters the primal force 4 giants 7 small Tiny Calabi Yau balls Still raging with the chaotic radiant energy of the Pith The bubble roars to life Filled with the Inflaton Expanding faster and faster Beyond all comprehension Alas something must give With each bit of expansion entropy grows With each added possibility the temperature falls Inflaton cracks! Spills into the primordial fields 10^-35 seconds Crack! The second Breaking! The primordial fields shattered again Cooling-quarks bound The Dark sector rises An echo of an earlier age 10^-12 seconds Crack! The last breaking photons like fireflies through molasses! For Three Hundred Thousand years Absolute pitch darkness If you were there A howling maelstrom around you small fluctuations Thinning A brilliant flash bright as a star Everywhere All at Once The Last Scattering Surface The last echo From the Pith
