Penetrating Secrets – a poem by Cynthia Pitman

Penetrating Secrets
With all your science can you tell how it is — & whence it is, that light comes into the soul?– — Henry David Thoreau

The science is settled.
We know it all now.
No more need to wonder
why the sweltering heat of the wind
blows across the burning blacktop,
melting the thick tar pitch into a sticky cohesion.
Science has that covered.
No more need to wonder
why the tornadoes gyre terror
across the vast heartland
attacking and flattening the homes, the trees, the animals
and the people.
Science has that covered.
No more need to wonder
why the ocean’s cryptic creatures dwell deep in darkness,
adorned with rich jewel tones
that will never be seen.
Science has that covered.
No more need to wonder
why the flowers bleed blood-red or drip butter-yellow,
their heavy scent saturating the air
with aromatic jubilation.
Science has that covered.

No more need to wonder
why the stars gaze down upon us
while they are trapped in the frozen pose of gravity,
lighting our darkness, but never enough.
Science has that covered.
The science is settled.
No more need to wonder.
So many secrets,
and all of them –
covered.

Cynthia Pitman has had poetry published in Literary Yard and Right Hand Pointing. The title of the RHP issue, The White Room, was from her poem, and the artwork was designed around it. She has poetry forthcoming in Postcard Poems and Prose, and a short story forthcoming in Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art.