AN ASTONISHING HYPOTHESIS
    (a la Francis Crick and others)

They claims my soul never was,
before I was,
and it will not be
when mourners come to pay respect
for what was, or some say, is
me.

Arcs from soul to soul
are hard to observe.
Just as it takes stringent experiments
to mark a quark's fate.
Many years ago I saw for an instant,
body and face of our stillborn son
cradled in doctor's hands before he was taken away.

Yet today, I long for him -
a soul that never was
and does not exist
so much missed.

-Bernard Otterman