Intelligence Quotient

Thomas Quitzau

September 20, 2021

Had Einstein not donated his brain,

Surely we would have found someone else,

Eventually, someone really smart—

Possessing delectable cortices

Titillating lobes to slice, have at it.

Or perhaps we could look elsewhere to know:

Intelligences artificial or 

Military, too hidden to see too

Remote to access too complex to grasp,

We dare not question for looking the fool.

Take it from one who used to make, fire, test

Weapons, the discharge of which was also

Invisible, laser light, hard to see

But an accurate guide for destruction

In conjunction with Sidewinders of death:

The next time you give orders, sir,

Don’t you dare tell me, yet again, 

That “our intelligence was good.”

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.