Particle Physics

When I was little, I wanted the world

to be littler.

I nibbled on crackers

like a mouse,

like a scientist,

shedding crumbs on the rug like yesterday’s mysteries,

wanting to granularize everything.

In the oppression of the afternoon I ground

my hands in the Lego bin

at my mom’s house,

at my dad’s house

little plastic atoms,

slipping into corners like hands into pockets,

feeling for the pieces to put it all back together.