Toward A More Modest Agnosticism

You would concur, wouldn’t you,
Were someone to say, The world
Can never fully be known?

On that, most people agree,
As on some other basics
Such as, Nobody’s perfect.

And yet the implications
Of unknowability
Of the world in full don’t land

Full force. Either people duck
Them for the comfortable
Thought that whatever one thought

True of the world still could be
(After all, you never know),
Or carry on with finding

What can be known, since someone
In a world that can’t be known
In full can always know more.

Few waste time considering
That what’s left unknown could be
Considerable, could be

Unlike anything we’ve guessed,
Unlike anything known yet,
Could be headed straight for us.