That unknown bodiless entities employ
Our brains at night as virtual reality theaters
Seems, if not beyond all question, utter
Rubbish of the sort wed say is amply
Proved in evidentiary terms.
The chief thing is: its safe. The volts and amps
Are all to code. The wiring diagrams
Will show that, during active REM sleep, motor
Nerves are disengaged. The bloody thrash
Is not enacted bodily in bed.
Otherwise, sheet-wound like feuding Bedouins
Wed wake to mayhem in marriage. Sheesh,
What asay, are you awake? For pitys
Sake, Sweetheart, tell me, what entities?
This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 27 September 2008, on page 29
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