Epitaph on Epicurus’s
Epiphenomenon:
Wishful Non-Thinking
The soul, if it exists at all, consists
Of stuff we cannot register with tools
Or natural senses. If the mind resists
The logic of thin physics, then new rules
Must be developed, like a child who dreams
Up playmates in imagination to
Defeat his loneliness. The dreamer deems
These epiphenomena brightly true,
Yet wishing does not make them so. We wish
For many things, but that does not reveal
Them as ripe proof. The soul is just a dish
Served up by prophets who desire to feel
Some mystic meaning. They are like that boy
Who needs a Ouija board or some such toy.