Science

Einstein daydreamed at his messy desk,
sliding down a lazy sunbeam at the speed of light. 
E = mc²
August Kekule fell asleep in front of the fireplace,
his rational mind exhausted.
He discovered the circular structure
of the benzene molecule
dreaming of a luminous serpent biting its own tail.
Dr. Oppenheimer directed the Manhattan Project,
inventing the first atom bomb.
He also studied Sanskrit.
As he watched the explosion in the desert at Yucca Flats,
he muttered verses from the Bhagavad Gita.
"I am become the destroyer of worlds.
Even if you beheld the light of 10,000 suns,
you would not see one particle of my glory."
The first Neanderthal was a scientist too.
He gathered a handful of useless corn,
jagged and tasteless as broken teeth.
Then he stumbled, spilling the kernels on hot coals.
It was an accident.
They popped, grew soft and fragrant.
He tasted one.
Science asks very simple questions
without clinging to answers,
for the answers are dancing like dust motes
in a golden ray.
Science is not knowing,
but knowing how much we don't know.
Paying attention to particulars, yet trusting
in the limitless space of possibility between electrons.
Science is careful, not infallible,
intuiting the way all creatures ground their hearts
in a paradox of quantum uncertainty.
The answers are dancing like dust in a golden ray.

Photo: J. Robert Oppenheimer