Ethereal

How do you know when something is there?
Men in lab coats study things unseen by naked eye
Amplify it under a microscope, squeeze the juice
They look through the lens, and stare and stare
They cheat, use lens to magnify the specimen
But it's seen—is it not? Thus, is there.

Well, what about the underground traffic sensors?
How many times have you gone past a green light
How many times have you watched red turn to green
These takes we take for granted, thinking
It's all machines, I've got places to go, my car is great
Who care when the signal turn green, yellow, or red
'Tis all colors, and my eyes interpret that and act accordingly

But all the information is reaped underground, where eye do not turn
If the sensors failed, and all the lights turned green
There would be accidents nationwide
Or if the red light flashed, there would be frustration
Millions upon millions of drivers, honking and going berserk

How ironic then, when your hands are on their steering wheels
Your eyes plastered on the traffic signal, nodding along to the radio
That the source of all the magic is below where you sit
Below your SUV, below the asphalt of the roads even
So do things go unnoticed that we do not see

The clean and fresh air we breathe, we take for granted
We neither see it, smell it, taste it, nor can establish its shape
Sample it, glance through the microscope
You will witness the shocking existence of nothing
All we can prove is its existence, and that is woefully all
Yet it is vital to life, and without it we would not be alive
So do things go unnoticed that we do not see

So is oxygen a marvelous element, so it is a helper
Unseen, like an ethereal guide, keeping us alive
In the way, perhaps, strange supernatural forces act
They shape the world, but these forces cannot be ascertained

One step further is all I ask:
The things that are hidden but can be seen nevertheless, and do exist
Next the things that cannot be seen at all, but they do exist
Finally the things that cannot be seen all all
Their presence unconfirmed, their existence undecided
So I ask again: How do you know when something is there?