©2014 by Jack A. Urquhart

Do you know Einstein’s Law
of Photoelectric Effect—
how electrons can lose
their metallic bonds,
become sub-atomic emissions,
spun solo into space?
Well, neither do I.  Not really.
Only layman’s knowledge.

Just enough to speculate,
to guess how P.E. might explain
the way it was with us:
how I couldn’t keep a “natural” orbit,
couldn’t defy nature
(much less Einstein!)
to keep metal-mighty and mated
to you.

Ironic, don’t you agree—
the alchemy of attraction?
How all that’s required
is a bundle of bright.
How a tiny photon
shed just right,
can break the mettle
of a man.

That is the thing
I can’t get past:
how Albert got us right,
how it was light
that parted us
just enough of it
to shatter ironclad bonds,
send electrons reeling.

Quite the matriculation, that—
to be so suddenly freed,
thinking how alone I’d be,
thinking how unlikely:
the queer science
of like attracting like.
But then I never was any good
at chemistry.