Electronegativity

the tired man is an iron man

oxidizing from the inside out

the bromination, chlorination

and fluoridation of existence

can turn the noblest gas,

stable and freestanding,

into an electron-deficient,

ionic b***h

a hydroxide or a cyanide

in search of a positive charge,

a lone unsuspecting hydrogen or

sodium or lithium ion looking in

both the right and wrong places

for love and affection

and the human intellect can't

penetrate why those kind of events

happen like that like why they can't

penetrate the path and location of 

electrons from one instant to another 

and that may be why the human intellect

invented reality, defined reality as

'it is what it is' like Eddie Money

singing of his own lack of control

in the relationship

no leverage, no forces to counterbalance

the weightlessness in this universe

we call the universe

a place of numerical neutrality,

a place where electropositivity

and electronegativity make love

in that ying-yang sixty-nineness

that makes feng shui look like

morons organizing a gravel pit

showdown without ever knowing

what rocks are

but human life is the great exception,

noble or not, gaseous or not,

the electronegativity of our

mere existence makes us

flourine ions searching

for xenon love be it down

in the boondocks or in the

cloisters of a nunnery

we are ionic,

we are deficient,

we are toxic,

we are beings breaking

the ideal laws of the universe,

we are the three forms of xenon flouride

cutting into the nobility of group eighteen

so much for the tired man making any sense,

because the orderly, sensible universe really

makes no sense at all

Reviews

[charlie]

One of the best, most interesting science lessons I believe I've ever had: it's like some misanthropy as told by chemistry: lucifer could take this, hold it up to the big man and say "see! I told you so - and here's the science!" :)

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thank you so much, Charlie.

[Nusquam Esse]

Honestly, this may be one of your better pieces. Some great word play, you don't often see people comparing atomic properties with human personalities. Like the parallel you draw between people's relationships and their roles, in contrast to Ionic bonds.. Your references to Xenon and Group 18, I guess we all are looking for a stable relationship aye?

[Kenneth The Poet]

More or less. I think humans have tendencies to fluoridation. Fluoride is the most reactive halogen of all, capable of taking electrons from noble gases (primarily xenon). Human nature can a tendency to corrupt anything it touches. Thank you for the review.

[Nusquam Esse]

Ahhh, most excellent. I unfortunately was not aware of that relation between Fluoride and Xenon. I can get a decent number of Chemistry references... but only up to a point. It was never my field of expertise... main thing I took out of my classes was to never spill high molar Hydrofluoric Acid on yourself... which I suppose is still a good lesson to be learned.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Agreed. I only learned of that relationship after I read the Wikipedia on those series of compounds.

[joshua deathdealer]

*claps* Now this pure Kenneth and I love it. Kinda like being in a class to understand the meaning of life and at the end realizing there is no meaning at all. This is brilliant. It really is.

in that ying-yang sixty-nineness
that makes feng shui look like
morons organizing a gravel pit
showdown without ever knowing
what rocks are......wtf lol awesome

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thanks so much, Josh!

[Cascara (aka Sprint Goe..]

It's really clever to see how you can accurately insert references to chemistry.

I love the last stanza- it beings a sense of sudden yet truthful irony into your eloquent poem.

Very witty work and a pleasure to read.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thank you, Cascara.

[Cascara (aka Sprint Goes Cascading!)]

You're welcome.

[Raymond Federle]

Excellent. I like the play on words! Well crafted. :)

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thank you, Raymond.

[Kenneth The Poet]

What a brilliant title first of all, then, next, I loved all you wrote here, I think you're one of a rare few who totally understand the Iron(y) of arms of steel :) like me.

It's so gorgeously chemical, I almost disappear, in your words ;) lol.... and there is eighteen again... :)
Periodic, systematically well spelled out.... So elementary lol :D Smiling!!

Loved your ending friend... brilliant. ;)

- Elisa

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thank you, Elisa. I have been obsessing our chemical connections and chemical equations lately. I love the Periodic Table.

Me too, I'm in love with our Periodic Table, :D it's like the turntable of our universe :D Very very welcome, I so enjoy your work friend. Always.