My great-uncle makes even cosmology
offensive.
He takes the Dark Matter as a euphemism,
calls it Nigra Matter,
skulking and shuffling around
where it can't be found
when needed
undermining the rules of a
well-ordered universe.
He relates it to the substantia nigra
nestled in his brain
interfering with his mood
and what he wants to do.
Secretly he is appalled that
miscegenation over the ages has
let the substantia nigra in
to all of us, hopes that
careful breeding will eventually
weed it out—
just as he is appalled at
the state of the Cosmos
which was doing fine until
those Jews and Poles,
Kepler, Copernicus, Einstein,
got hold of it;
knows that it's just one
more damn thing his kind
will have to straighten out;
sees that eons will be needed
discipline, right-thinking, adherence to rules
until at long last
the clarity and precision
of the crystalline spheres
is restored.
We have not even approached
the stars, but already
his hatred is among them.