Caution: Fatal If Imagined

“Just think,” thought some Chinese person,/Many bloody centuries ago,/”Put this dust in a tube and ignite it/And away a slug of metal will go.”

Now, I don’t think there is an actual designated region/Anywhere but in the human imagination/That human souls reside for eternity/In torment for their misdeeds,

But even if there were/I don’t think the mere imagining of the principal use of Gunpowder/Would earn that Chinese soul a ticket/To such a place.

But the driving force of human survival/Demands that once an idea is out there/That is novel and useful*/It WILL be run up the flagpole/To see who salutes it.

One of the mysteries of the Universe/Is some undetectable stuff called dark matter/That we KNOW is there/But only inferentially/Because the Universe could not exist/Without at least six times as much mass/As we can detect/According to some of us who add their imaginations/To their knowledge of mathematics/And physical law.

Imagine what would happen if we had access to that stuff?/SCARY!!!

A long time ago a man invited us to imagine/That there was neither Heaven nor Hell.

He was trying to push us toward peace and unselfishness.

But some of us seem to need angels

And devils.

****

*Since Useful means at core “full of use[s], putting something to BAD use still counts, alas.