Poem: "Back to Back"
This poem came from the April 5, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from thesilentpoet. It was sponsored by Shirley & Anthony Barrette.
Back to Back
Unified theory and magic
have run rings around each other,
kissed and told, lied and cheated and stolen,
yet somehow never succeeded in separating.
They are married, but without commitment.
Science and faith have sat down at the table
and carved up the universe between them,
body and soul, eaten still twitching.
They live under the same roof, but never share.
General relativity and quantum mechanics
are relatives who refuse to admit
that blood is thicker than water.
Even sweating, they still hog the covers.
They sleep in the same bed, but never speak.
There are the slamming doors and the rattling windows,
the countless steps that lead to nowhere.
There are the flying saucers and teacups
smashing into walls, flung with a savage curse.
There are the same eternal arguments
over whose turn it is to exercise the perfectly spherical horse.
Yet in the end, they always wind up
exactly where they began,
skin to skin, damp and panting with exertion,
their spines pressed together like two strands of beads,
their faces resolutely turned away.
It's enough to drive anyone mad.