Dark Matter Matters

Dark matter seems to be What isn’t there to be seen In between What we see. They dub it dark since you cannot detect it Nor can they inspect it With telescopy. Yet, while it can’t be descried It cannot be denied For equations that irk To work. Should dark matter matter, Would dark matter matter A titter or twitter, A transmitter flitter, A spatter or smatter— This transparent matter— To other than fans of the science news Or hopefuls for lists of physics who’s whos? Like other matters of matter that matter A pitter or patter, a skitter or scatter, It has to be plumbed, summed up and summed down, Verified, clarified, ere it’s dumbed down. One cannot spot it with unaided eyes— Oh, may the way to explore it be wise! Some sons and daughters of Mother Earth’s waters And sands of the dreamlands of Father Time Are trying to fathom celestial history, Master its mystery, reason and rhyme. Physicists hunt for dark matter, to move it With particle accelerators, to prove it Exists as suspected, from data collected With outcome expected, eureka! projected… But let us remember that they call it dark. How can one discern an invisible quark? They’re searching to learn of this strange seeming stuff, For knowledge is power— there’s never enough… It’s thought our universe has a whole lot of it. Those who suppose it give info they’ve got of it… Dark matter exerts gravitational pull. It glues stars together, makes galaxies full. Unlike normal matter it plays hide and seek And so much of it’s interactively weak… Speaking of such massiveness subatomic, Its acronym is ironically comic… With or without this WIMP snicker factor There’s still a detractor or two around… Though a gamma ray clue may have been found In the center of our own Milky Way— Dark matter collisions, that is to say. A curious mind always digs and delves. Yet, are we not getting ahead of ourselves? High fly the dreams of the capped and gowned To be world-renowned, laureate-crowned… Breakthroughs in deep outer space astound… While here on the ground, horrors abound! Be it phantom or really elusively there, Dark matter inferred, if ever laid bare, When we’ve been interred, with nary a word To mark our swift passage, might have the last laugh With ‘what fools were mortals!’ for our cenotaph— ‘Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night: Humans unlocked them, but all was not light.’ – Harley White < January 2011 >