“The mind is its own place”

   “The mind is its own place”

    ~ Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 221-270, John Milton

The mind creates its own space/time inside

A rumpled space in skulls.  The gravity

In that dimension grows as long and wide

As heaven and hell to hold depravity

Of atom bombs and peace from Jesus Christ,

The mushroom clouds exploding with each blast

And Buddha with his fingers making tryst

Between Nirvana and the toddlers gassed

In Auschwitz showers.  The time is like the length

Of death and brief as Mayfly love or dread

Inside a brain on guillotine.  The strength

Of consciousness swells fierce where spells are bred.

  When Einstein did his thought experiments,

    His mind implied entombment cerements.

Phillip Whidden