Match

The silence chills
it freezes the hottest room
brings the mercury down
close enough to say Kelvin,
absolute zero, -459 degrees F.

Superconductivity, superfluidity
quantum mechanics zero point
energy quelled, entropy stilled
enthalpy minimal, not one voice

Can speak in silence this cold
throat frozen, heart near stopped
cryogenic foreverness
too frigid to feel the loss

Of us, of you, of this, of me

Colder than the universe, its 2.73K,
a heatwave compared to this place
I’m in, this vacuum of spacetime
scientists cannot replicate

Deafening in quiet
ears roar with silence
enough to make sane men mad
send anyone to early grave

But…I have a match.
There’s no snuffing out of me.
One puff of my inner fire,

And we
warm back
to we.

~ Emily Clapper

5.23.16

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