Yesterday’s dVerse challenge was to write a trimeric poem. I thought “cool, a chemistry topic! My chemistry is a bit oxidised, but I still remember what a trimer is… right, here we go:
Oh ethyline, oh ethyline
you pretty little thing,
oh my darling little monomer,
from you I’ll make a ring!
You pretty little thing,
Let me loosen all your bonds,
No, leave on your hydrogen…
Oh my darling little monomer,
look, I’ve brought a friend for you,
hold hands and dance along of her!
From you I’ll make a ring,
all that’s needed is a third
to which you both can cling.
Oh ethylines, oh ethylines,
you pretty little things,
my darling little trimer,
now a lovely benzene ring.
”
…reading on, I realised that a poem about a molecule made from three other identical molecules was not in fact what was wanted. And that I’m probably even more of a nerd than I realised. Damn. Oh well. Time for some ethanol.
anotherKate 
This has a lovely rhythm to it – and now I know what ethylene is and what a monomer is (yes, I looked them up) 😁.
Thank you 😀
How delightful! How smart! And in the process of reading your poem, I got educated! Cheers.
Thank you Helen 😀 I’m a better educator than poet, fortunately.
oh ok thought it might have been unleaded petrol is all.
nah, petrol’s just a long chain, benzene is much more elegant 😉
wouldn t know. me mind don t go there. lmao. la tho anyways.
I feel like I learned actual knowledge from a poem. Well done.
Thank you, my inner teacher is very happy to hear that. 😀
From what I’ve read of your poetry this makes you no more of a nerd then you already appear. 😁 Rather fun education, Kate! Speaking of sciencey poetry, I meant to pass this to you earlier. The “Me fail? I fly!” blog (another Aussie) I read had a Journal review the other day, and one of the Journals reviewed was the Science issue of “Rabbit.” Which is a ‘journal of nonfiction poetry.’ It’s here if you are interested: https://shawjonathan.com/2021/05/31/journal-blitz-7/
Oh Stephen, physics isn’t anywhere near as nerdy as chemistry! I guess except for illegal chemistry.
Thanks for pointing me at that blog, looks good, and so does Rabbit!
Says the physics prof. 😁 You’re welcome for the pointing. Enjoy!
😀 😀 😀
thank you !
I never enjoyed chemistry in school, but at least it can be taken advantage of for good poetry~
Thank you Larry! To call it “good poetry” is very kind of you 😀
Kate,
You’ve cast a chemical spell with this one, hypnotic as each line chants its own formula of bonds and attractions! I love it!
pax,
dora
Thanks Dora ❤
Delightful and fun to read!
Thanks Grace!
So fun! Like Michael Rosen for grown-ups!
Thank you Ren! A compliment indeed! ❤
It’s a lovely dance–we don’t need intimate knowledge to participate. (K)
Thank you K! I’ve been watching Sanditon on TV lately, and I did have a minuet sort of dance in mind. But with more sniggering and innuendo.
from saucy electrons to sauce… a fine decanting.
oddly, somehow I have been told I have ‘won’ the city of Livermore’s Science Poetry each of the last 2 years. (Yes, the same Livermore of lab fame). I think it was a small field.
Thank you M, and congratulations! 🙂 Cool that you live the LLNL! Have you ever been to visit? Or do you work there?
neither. I lived near there until 2 months ago, when life circumstances changed, but did participate both in person and on zoom with the monthly open mic hosted by the poet laureate of Livermore.
That sounds fun. I’ve never done an open mic – wrong time zone for dVerse etc. I guess I could look for a local one. Dunno… I think I’d be more comfortable with it online than F2F these days.
or just set your rooster to ‘wake’ and get up middle of the night. he’s gonna crow anyways. may as well get some poetry out of it. for your turn, you could wring his neck ?
hmmm… I have written about killing chooks before… https://anotherkatewilson.wordpress.com/2021/02/03/grim-eaters/
but yes, neck wringing is probably more… visceral.
I think you did trimeric justice to the prompt! You reminded me of GCSE chemistry, which I actually quite liked, so thank you 🙂
Thanks Ingrid 🙂
A very fun trimeric, Kate! I thought I was a nerd until I read this. I must admit I had to look up the words ethylene and monomer 😀 My mind boggles at what you were doing at the time 🙂
I imagine there are degrees of nerdiness, or perhaps varieties 😀
Well, I am rather familiar with ethanol so… 😊
😀
This is gorgeously rendered, Kate! 😀
Thank you Sanaa