Any sufficiently understood magic is indistinguishable from technology

by John MacBeath Watkins

In the forest of my youth

every gnarled primeval root

was the bones of some nightmare beast

defeated by the valorous feat

of an eldritch power to me unknown

that might next turn upon my home.

The forest trail's now wide and plain

a garden path in all but name

and I can name that eldritch power

against which stands no wall or tower

in which I've lived, both boy and man

which sifts away like grains of sand.

Its power is greater than I dreamed

but isn't frightening as it seemed.

Magic, if understood by me

seems like mere technology.