I download paintings from the internet
And print them up in black & white, amazed
By what remains: Matisse's Deux Fillettes unfazed
By the dark interior that frames this tete-a-tete.
On another site, some scientists have a test
That slows the speed of light down to a crawl,
While elsewhere ministers attempt to stall
The sale of Archimedes' palimpsest.
Byte by byte, religion, science and art
Consolidate, and I imagine the Tower of Babel--
Bruegel's versions merging with the Bible--
Looming as I stare into my screen, inert
And wondering whether or not I should succumb
To this, the tiniest tidbit of our new millennium.