Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was fun
Until you thought about it you can tell
I’m still catching up to contemporary
Culture if I’ve only recently read what
Was pop in 1979 vaguely recall
Hearing a few of the radio series
But probably not original productions
Those of you fearing I shall trash
Your longtime fave can depart now
I did say it was fun while it lasted
For me was the first book which
Ended no spoiler here when
The philosophers were told forty-two
Was the answer to their ultimate why
They turned the question over to
The galaxy’s flawless hyper-mega
Computer which after only ten million
Years of processing rang up 4-2
Without further explanation not
Forty-one not forty-three just plain
Old forty-two of course there
Had been a verbal flailing of
The philosophers as having
Come to any number of
Indefensible dead ends
So they were quite agreeable
To giving the electronic idea
Grinder a whack at the problem
The author has pulled this rabbit
Out of a hat as he has any number
Of mental processes systems which
All get their comeuppances in
Turn Newton’s notion of space
Quantum theory relativity all
Treated lightly to develop the
Humorous potential of upending
Just about everybody’s notions
Of what’s going on starting with
The death of the earth effected
As a miscalculation by idiots of
Where to place an interstellar
Highway to machines which
Achieve only the most improbable
Events to mice as the most intelligent
Creatures on earth it’s all a game
Fun as it proceeds cleverly
From one improbable event
To another here’s your second
Chance to jump ship as I am now
Going to get serious about the
Buffoonery this bandying of all
Things rational has its price the
Amusement occurs only as a trick
On our honorable attempts to
Understand I have come to rescue
The bemused philosophers who
Can’t nail explanations down
That’s pretty much been the state
Of the study since the linguistic
Analysts concluded all philosophical
Inquiries are pseudo-questions
Which cannot rationally be posed
Much less answered in short there
Are fewer things in heaven and
On earth Horatio than are dreamt
Of in your philosophy stick to
Science and small questions
And avoid getting your mental
Knickers in a twist settle for
Forty-two as the ultimate reply it
Is as much an answer as you’ll
Ever get may seem mad
But all the others are mad too
Quite unsatisfying to find oneself
Bellyflopping through the galaxy
With a mind evolved for answers
To questions that can’t be asked
No fun to be frustrated forever
Like living in Bedlam
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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