POEMS/ The Universe Without the Higgs Boson
The Universe Without the Higgs Boson
Like moonlight we would be
weightless unless this particle
gave us mass and substance.
Without the Boson, our lives
would be only so much gardening
in the dark. We would be trapped
at the edge of a fallow field
where a rusted plow marks
the last furrow. Underground
we would listen to earthworms,
voiceless in the mole’s tunnel
without that moment
when the law of balance tips,
and our gardens grow.
Everything interesting,
including ourselves
results from flaws or breaks
in the symmetry --
without these gaps we are
bodiless shades
formless without the dropped
stitch in the knitted row.
The Universe Without the Higgs Boson appears in Migrations (Antrim House, 2013)
Like moonlight we would be
weightless unless this particle
gave us mass and substance.
Without the Boson, our lives
would be only so much gardening
in the dark. We would be trapped
at the edge of a fallow field
where a rusted plow marks
the last furrow. Underground
we would listen to earthworms,
voiceless in the mole’s tunnel
without that moment
when the law of balance tips,
and our gardens grow.
Everything interesting,
including ourselves
results from flaws or breaks
in the symmetry --
without these gaps we are
bodiless shades
formless without the dropped
stitch in the knitted row.
The Universe Without the Higgs Boson appears in Migrations (Antrim House, 2013)