Science

When a Scientist is a poet as well,

The whole world stops at his feet.

I found an atom under a book of stories about boisterous men

And then I remembered that it wasn’t really there

I didn’t really find it

And I don’t belong here.

Yes, I don’t belong here like my shoes don’t belong on my feet

Because I stole them from the bowling alley down the street

And they have a warrant out for my arrest

A gift card and two sticks of bubble-gum

If I chew it up nice and thick

Maybe I can make a covalent bond out of the tiny bits of paper

I’ve been thumbing for

While drifting into stubborn solitude

And puffing on infinite swallows

Of scientific smoke

That I forgot the name for

But it’s okay because

NO and NO still mean

I can’t learn this

When I read them aloud

I think I understand

Why Darwin never wrote poetry

To fit the rest of us
A Library / 2013