Poem: "Particulate Divinity"
This poem came out of the January 7, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from siliconshaman. It also fills the "religious and other festivals" square in my 12-11-13 card for the Ladies Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.
Particulate Divinity
The holiday party at the CERN facility
took place on the winter solstice
so that people could celebrate with colleagues
and still spend Christmas with family.
Dr. Roxanne Beckett brought wassail
generously spiked with rum,
and set up a crèche on an end table.
If it seemed a bit odd for a theoretical physicist
to be that religious, nobody mentioned it.
Ms. Willow Attwater brought a Yule log
filled with hazelnut butter,
and hung mistletoe over the door.
If people thought it peculiar for a Wiccan intern
to work in a science institution, nothing was said.
After the first round of wassail,
holiday carols were sung -- "Silent Night"
and "Deck the Halls" and "Fum Fum Fum."
After the second round of wassail,
people started pushing each other
under the mistletoe and that's how
the two women wound up kissing.
After the third round of wassail,
everyone lost count of the rounds
and just refilled their cups
whenever one went empty.
Somewhere after midnight
the theoretical physicist and the Wiccan intern
flung their arms around each other
and wobbled their way into the lab.
"We should have more decorations,"
Willow said, leaning on Roxanne's desk.
"Sure," said Roxanne.
"Let's irradiate something."
"Like what?" Willow asked.
"I dunno. Anything shiny," Roxanne said.
So Willow pulled out her sterling pentacle
and they blasted it with Higgs bosons
and then there was light.
There was really quite a lot of light
pouring out of the chamber,
and the first thing Roxanne did
was grab a dry-erase marker
to start scribbling equations on the whiteboard
in an attempt to figure out why it was so bright.
That's when Willow remembered
that pentacles are for containing
energy and entities.
"Hello?" she said tentatively.
"Why have you drawn us from our duty?"
boomed a chorus of voices.
"We light the new stars!
We smelt the new souls!
We cannot stop for your petty worship."
"Uh, we didn't intend to worship you,"
Roxanne said. "We just wanted
to bombard something with Higgs bosons
for a fun holiday ornament."
"What are you, anyway?"
asked Willow.
"We are the Higgs bosons,
you ignorant mortals!"
the chorus replied.
"We are the Divine Sparks
that bring light to the universe."
"Wouldn't that be the photons?"
Roxanne said.
"We are the light and the dark
and we bind everything together,"
the chorus rumbled.
"So you're duct tape,"
Roxanne said at the same time
Willow said, "So you're the Force."
"We are BUSY,"
said the Higgs bosons,
"and unless you want entropy to win,
you had better let us go this instant."
Roxanne determined that the pentacle
was not, oddly enough, radioactive
despite glowing very brightly.
Willow took a file and
hastily cut through the circle
around the star,
releasing the Divine Sparks.
They burst outward in a dazzling display
and disappeared from view,
leaving behind a pentacle
that now glowed very dimly.
"Well," said Willow,
"that was illuminating."
"Entropy always wins, though,"
said Roxanne. "There are equations."
"Can you actually remember
any of them right now?" Willow asked.
"Nah," said Roxanne.
"I've had too much wassail."
Finally Roxanne took some green folders
and fashioned them into a tree,
while Willow affixed the star to the top.
Very softly, in the dim lab,
Roxanne began to hum
"Star of Wonder,"
and Willow soon joined in.
* * *
Notes:
CERN is a famous science facility.
Wassail is a hot, spiced holiday beverage made from some combination of fruit juice and/or alcohol. Some versions, like this rum wassail, are quite potent.
Here is one recipe for a chocolate hazelnut Yule log. I suspect you could get something almost as good, with a lot less fuss, by spreading Nutella on a chocolate jelly roll and then curling it up.
The Higgs boson is often called "the God particle" for all the work it does and knowledge it holds.
The quote "there was light" comes from the Bible, and in colloquial use, refers to the discovery of knowledge as well as to illumination.
Photons are the quanta of the electromagnetic spectrum, variously described as particles, waves, or wavicles.
Duct tape and the Force are both said to have a light side, a dark side, and bind the universe together.
"Entropy always wins" is a polygenetic quote appearing in various forms, summarizing a key aspect of thermodynamics.
"Star of Wonder" is a variation of the Christmas carol "We Three Kings."