The Uncertainty Principle

The Uncertainty Principle


A far cry from “Do I dare to eat a peach?”
Eat the peach and let the pit fall where it may
Knowing that the pitfall may impeach you some dark day.
This peach may prove proverbial butterfly
whose fatal flutter drowns a distant world.
Appalled you’d be to learn this peach was plucked
by children, abducted from their homes and sold;
or the orchard where it grew had just been sprayed
with poison, our biosphere at risk, Gaia dismayed.

But peaches must be eaten, pits be dropped.
Believing that we’re blind, we drink our drop
Of probability. So science evolves, it can’t be stopped.
If this be error and upon me proved,
Hang me from String Theory. The paradigm has moved
closer to our dream Theory of Everything:
that bushy tail we chase, just out of reach
around the next bend and the next
it’s scent, garam masala
pricks our nostrils, so we’re vexed
to sneezing an “ah-ha”! with each new step.

When such as we cast out omniscience
humility and joy flow through our being;
the quantum of our gravity’s decreased;
awe, levity and reverence are increased.
We can assay and we can guess,
part waves of light and make a mess
of all old shibboleths; or wave at particles of light,
if we’re inclined. So light and lightness dance.
We’re blessed to have this toy box of a mind.