The Universe of Missing Mass
John Sacelli
when i was a child i went to mass.
didn’t like it much.
our father which art in heaven . .
is there really witch art in heaven?
do they cast spells, burn sinners
in latin?
was afraid, didn’t like it much
when i was a young man
left the church, joined the masses
revolution
of the masses,
by the masses
for the masses
didn’t care for that either
mass movements, mass murder
scared me too
now an old man
and the subject is still mass
the mass of the earth
which binds us here
gravity, the grave
mass, masses,
massed armies, fortunes amassed,
mass hysteria, mass extinctions,
mass illusion
oh, i know, it has a purpose
mass – held us here
while we learned
held us together
while we grew
the masses did the work
built farms and forms
cities and societies
but now
i have to leave
want to leave
i want to fly
skip the scene
skip the unseen
the earth is massive
jupiter more so
the sun, still more
but when we fly, high enough
they are small, tiny, vanishing
it is my time
to be untied
to be untide
i will not cheat you
i will not cheat the earth
matter, mass
i will leave my body
atoms, ashes
then leave my bodhi
leave my bodhisattva
with all these young masses
i will be
what physics, churches
nations cannot find –
the universe of missing mass
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