I can believe

given the vastness
of the cosmos

and its immense age

that there are super-
intelligent entities

out there

in the darkness (or somewhere) -
maybe

ten

or twenty
or one hundred

or two hundred

million
or

a billion

or more. Observers
of everything 

everywhere. Keepers 

of records.  Our
wars and our

famines

the poverty of our days
of mistrust

perhaps worth a footnote -

but scarcely of interest
to most.