“How miraculous and wonderful, hauling water and carrying firewood!”—Layman Pang (740–808 CE)*
Though the handcart travels faster,
direction down is still the same.
Arrival's probability—
as it has always been—is 1.
No matter how you work the sum
(acceleration, kinetic
energy, our great momentum),
we evolved to devise the gun.
The changes in the passing scenes
don’t add up to a lack of means.
(Fools who dream of surviving Mars,
should swill their drugs in smarter bars.)
No sense wondering if you're good;
draw the water and tote your wood!
Envoi
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.†
†Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, and mathematician (1048–1131), trans. Edward FitzGerald (1859).
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
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