The Magpie Huddles With His Treasures

These are the mottoes
Of the secret physicist,
Ringing the changes,
Echoing in time:

Cold doubt and honest wonder
Surpass overconfident
Mysticism for insight,
Pain and suffering.

The simplest of a bundle
Of possible equations
Expresses a law
As a convenience for us.

And so on. We’ve got no gift
Greater than that we exist.