Chemistry is often considered the central science - the bridge between the physical (dead) sciences and biological (life) sciences; as such, this is the field that can be most easily used for healing or destruction, depending on how you use them (although if you're Fritz Haber, you might achieve both).

Saltpeter (potassium nitrate), a compound traditionally used in both medicine and gunpowder, becomes an embodiment of this tension.

Meanwhile, merchants are often cast into a bad light by media stereotype, but their wealth can in fact do a lot of good. Whether this good "redeems" the negative impact their business might have, or whether a business's less than savoury dealings corrupts good intentions, is a question that may escape easy answers.

At first, I wrote this poem with a specific historical figure in mind: Konishi Ryusa, a medicine wholesaler from 16th century Japan who specializes in saltpeter. A Christian convert, he's widely praised by Jesuits for his generosity, but because he lived in the Warring States Period, much of his wealth and influence came from patronage by influential warlords (particularly Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi) who would purchase his wares for war purposes. However, I decided to make the poem more archetypical.