Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Measure of All Things - Ros McFarlane

The Measure of All Things

Man has made himself
the measure of all things.

Stars are measured by the distance
from him.
Mountains are conquered
in feet.
Oceans are only as deep
as his ships can travel down.
Sunlight is dissected
into manageable portions
of sleeping, waking and working hours.

Animal intelligence
is compared to his.
Infrared and ultraviolet light
to colours visible through his eye.

Women measure their intelligence,
assets, education, prospects,
by his ideal;
and find themselves lacking or overachievers.

Man has even made himself
the measure of love
with “normal” (heterosexual)
“aberrant” (homosexual)
and “erotica” (hot lesbians).

But when man has even
measured God in relation to himself
(an outdated, primitive concept)
what is there left to measure up to?

Ros McFarlane

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ilove this poem .... its so clever ... beautifully constructed and speaks volumes (to me) ... love it >>> Gina
http://blumoon13.wordpress.com/