The infinitesimal core of hard matter
that is the heart of me
will occasionally meet another.

Sparks will fly,
minute electrical attractions
flicker into life and flash out.
Arcs of energy cutting a jagged bridge
from one lonely island to another.

We condense now, gas to liquid.
Now liquid to solid, we freeze
against the nature of freewheeling,
unpredictable orbits.
Our polar axes stick in place.

We form partial charges,
dipoles, Van der Waals.

Our charges spent,
we lose intimacy to unsteady
but growing bonds-
lop-sided and polarized.

But the longer we wait,
the more force necessary
to twist away,
to retrieve my energy,
to break this bond.

by Joe Yates ‘11