Scale

If we were ten orders smaller we'd be the same size as atoms
One hundred trillion or so making us head to toe
If we were ten orders larger we'd be the size of a star
Then they wouldn't be so far away, and we'd go

Psychologists say we are poor weighing scale
But if we were the same size as stars could we see
How our size relates to worm, sperm, and whale?
Some small things matter...  some just think they do

But think for a moment of a star-sized brain
Would intellect matter, would reason still reign?
Go the other direction, would love disappear
In a world governed only by life without tear?

If eyes don't tear science says they will freeze
If salt couldn't dissolve would love, also fear?
Life in a quantum world might have less stress
But gravitational realm leaves this beautiful mess

At least what some can see here as beauty
With an eye the size of those we now use
To see all we see and assess from the clues
That we use as the tools to assess all we see

Anthropologists tell us that our use of tools
Is one thing that separates us from the beasts
But then we observe some both great and small
Using things to do things making us look like fools

Pachyderms, monkeys, dolphins, and crows
All behave in a way that looks like they know
How to utilize what is apparent to them
And all have what we see as brains on a stem

But the cocoanut octopus has no such branch
Born with no shell it can find what it likes
To hide when it needs to and leave when it hikes
Jets to jettison, brilliant to blanch

Yet none of these question, make science, or art
So we see them as somehow somewhat inferior
Which allows us to see ourselves as superior
All the while watching our world fall apart

Is it because our metrics have become so small
That we measure our treasure in what we build tall
Instead of expanding our minds from within
Which leaves us without the right place to begin

animalhumanitynaturescienceuniverserhyme

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