grief wakes the nucleus

of the whole atom

wavers the line of stopped ambulances

alongside the freeway

swivels like a swung shovel

coming at you in a yard full of wreckage

you snap one of those plastic

produce tabs on it, saying

this is something I did

this is something I will not do

then in the arbor of sudden light

time, collapsar, dissolves in it

a telephone, like the arm moving to answer its ring,

wakes up

wakes, this time

the whole atom