The Future in a Glass

Behold! he cries, The man! A man! All men...
In this small glass mankind in essence lies.
Here sleeps our history, sleeps Bethlehem.
Here some new Mary opens future eyes.
Pascal and Gandhi,  all are in this phial:
Mother Theresa, Schweitzer, Wittgenstein,
Ivan the Terrible - mankind most vile,
and mankind saintly, neutral or benign.

"Aha!" a heckler cries to rouse the show,
"you've nothing there but common D.N.A.!"
Not so! says he, this is no single throw,
for with this glass I shape the world my way!
"How do you use it, friend?" the heckler cries.
Like this, he says, and sniffs the glass, and dies.

Written for the dVerse Poets~Pub Form for All prompt by Gay Reiser Cannon