In the beginning,
Man was a creature
Of potential unrealized.
The secrets of the universe lay hidden,
Lurking just out of sight,
Behind the mysterious doors
Of language
And science
And art.

But slowly, the man that was
Became the man that would be.
A society so long languishing in darkness
Burst forth to flourish in the light.
With the invention
And optimism
And hope
Of a race that strives continually
For the better.

Plants unearthed pigments
By which the beauty of the earth
Could be captured,
Preserved for those of the future
To find joy in the beauty of the past.

Soon followed
The intricate dance of Red 40 and Yellow 6,
As hues once unknown to human eye
Carefully crafted the sunset orange
That streaks the luminous sky.

Even gone, it persisted,
As fingers once graced
With the fruit of man’s labors
Bore testimony
Of a beauty that catches the eye
And refuses to let go.

Man’s lack of understanding,
Once so limiting,
Dissipated
As the shade was pulled from man’s eyes,
And the mysteries of atoms,
Of molecules,
Of the very makeup of the cosmos,
Were unraveled.

And so it was,
With disciplines spanned and humanity united,
That it emerged,
Endowed with the power
To call up memories of childhood
And bring to the surface
Rose-tinted reminiscences of the past.

It was like nothing before,
A creation that man,
And man alone,
Could lay claim to,
An encapsulation
Of the unlimited potential of creation,
That concoction of cheesy goodness
That makes the heart sing.
That wonder that is
The Cheeto.