SOULAR


A new radar detector
that has recently been invented
can not only detect rainbows

as was its original intention

but also has the unexpected
yet astonishing power
of seeing people’s souls.

While meteorologists
and weather enthusiasts
are all aglow about this new
innovation,

blithely code named “Soular”,

civic and church
authorities are looking
leerily at this new invention.

Church Officials,
are distressed about meteorologists
meddling in matters
previously the domain
of people of the cloth,

not to mention it being
somewhat unethical to have
lay people voyeuristically
gawking into a person’s
soul.

The Surgeon General
has now also become involved
and recommended against
Government approval.
Her rationale:  
The soul has never before
been considered
a bodily part
and is therefore beyond
their scope of investigation.

In addition,
The Civil Liberties Union
has intervened
and has asked for a court injunction
to put a stop
to the test trials of this new mechanism.

Under the Fourth Amendment
of the constitution
this is considered
an invasion of personal privacy.
The constitution holds it
illegal to search
a person’s house,
and the body being a “temple”
makes it illegal
to peer into a person’s
most vital essence.

 Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, special 30th Anniversary Magazine April 2007