Asimov's SF, February 2010 by Issue 02 # February

Author:Issue 02 # February
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-07-10T14:01:41+00:00

Poetry: SUBATOMIC REDEMPTION by Michael Meyerhofer

* * * *

* * * *

I, too, was bored senseless

when my high school biology teacher

described in neat chalk-rings

the orbits of electrons

around the nucleus, clean

fields of addition and subtraction,

which all of us could sense

had nothing to do

with the real world. Years passed.

More doubt, more body hair,

more black holes and botched affairs.

In time, truth wormed its way

into the apple of any brain.

Truth—electrons bounce and jangle

at the speed of light,

so erratic, so unhinged that

sometimes, literally,

they disappear from the universe,

fly off to god knows where

then return like nothing happened,

blushing like party guests

back from making out in the bathroom.

We should have known better

than to fear being laid

beneath the business end of a shovel.

Wherever we are going,

we have gone there before

and broke free using nothing more

than the paltry speed of stars.

—Michael Meyerhofer

Copyright (c) 2010 Michael Meyerhofer

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