Hypothesis

First man looked to the answer to the stars, puzzled,
conversely did he turn towards the smallest part,
and thought the final answer atoms would provide,
discovered, sadly, that it only was the riddle's start,
nucleons, protons and mesons did he find,
spaces within the electrons huge distances apart,
of measured particles of undetermined kind,
supposedly more powerful than any found before,
cohesion greater than those which the atoms bind,
he found himself again before a closing door,
't is strange how microcosm and macrocosm
are both so very much aike,
like boxes within boxes in infinite progression
they do imagination strike,
for there are worlds within this world,
and our universe, so awesomely respected,
might in some greater world unfurled,
just as a maggot's tiniest part then be detected,
though this does not lift human pride,
the fact that mortal man this comprehends,
that our minds do through the heavens stride,
lends to our petty lives the sense.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2005 Alfred Charasz