What Is The MatterI have been a proton
Skipping fast around the room
Skipping running jumping tumbling fast around the room.
I have been an atom
Circulating through the crowd
Circulating ambulating cautious in the crowd.
I have been a molecule
Meeting up with other mes.
Meeting fleeting sweetly greeting yet repeating other mes.
And now I am a compound.
I'm still waiting to see what this part is all about.
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About the poem: This poem was inspired by the beginning of an episode of Radiolab in which the hosts tour a particle accelerator and after hearing how a proton would move around the 2 1/2 mile loop about 78000 times a second, one of the hosts said "I've never been a proton," and I immediately thought: yes, you have.
Or at least, I have. And after thinking I have been a proton I decided that would make a good opening line for the poem, which I then wrote by dictating it into my phone as I drove through traffic on the way home from a doctor's appointment.
The entire poem was written that way, and it took about 10 minutes, with the exception of the last line. I got all the way to And now I am a compound, which was where I arrived home, and I then spent some time playing with Mr Bunches and Mr F and I ate a sandwich, and then sat down to type this, and wrote the actual last line of the poem.
3 comments:
So where's the hot actress/actor? I feel short-changed by that.
Anyway, I wouldn't want to be a proton or electron. Those are boring. I'd want to be one of those cool quantum particles, especially the ones no one's ever really detected. Those are the badass rebel particles that don't play by anyone's rules.
Or maybe I'd just be dark matter.
Oh yeah and to echo my Tweet this morning, think how great that poem would sound coming out of Bill Shatner. You should go start a Kickstart campaign to get the money to start a one-man show where he reads your poems. Or maybe you could have hot actresses read your poems. That would be pretty great too.
I never really got the idea that protons got out much.
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