physics and the Standard Model,
we have accumulated a great deal of
knowledge about the relationships
among various subatomic particles.
However, this knowledge has not
significantly aided in our understanding
of the fundamental nature of any
particular elementary subatomic particle.
—Kevin H. Knuth, Cornell University
In short, it's because
of the nuclear forces—
those strong
and weak prefixes
to oceans,
to land
bridges, to huge world
wars and gas
shortages,
which carried the light,
if not
the word, forward,
messily, uselessly, crucially
in time—that I'm
here now talking
(though I can't say
to who
without spilling
the milk and
splitting in two),
unfolding truth,
wave by vague
wave, line
by blind line—
thus far redoubtable,
courageous and
carelessly
shitty at the same time,
and, of course
necessarily
compound-complex
as you, or
as dead
empty space, or
as the terrible
formidability
of this
very sentence.
