More Splintered Than Common Sense

As a layman, I would now say, I think we have it. It’s an historic milestone today.
I think we can all be proud and happy. —CERN director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer,
upon discovery of the long sought-after Higgs Boson, 4/7/2012

Having heard hints
of a never-before-seen particle
my day becomes new
the blue day is further fractured

What were small thoughts become
more pint-sized then the nonsense
of politicians: smaller even
than the bits of stained tile mosaic
under my feet beneath
a urinal

I’m told this is the much-sought-after
Higgs boson I’ve been chasing
my whole life, looking for it between
the pillows of my couch where I
often find keys and nickels or dimes.
Hope surged when I heard the news
my tomatoes perked green
their leaves and tiny blossoms
pulling-in new knowledge
and light

Scientists muse this particle
could be a new force of nature,
beyond sex perhaps;
maybe greater than greed

Who knows what new brick of the cosmos
they’ve found in their accelerator
in unexpected bumps in jets
of colliding particles noted
while they sipped Starbucks
as the white dust of a sugared torus
settled upon the lapels of their lab coats
and the macro-world fragmented
simultaneously with the micro
into something even more splintered
than common sense
.

by Jim Culleny, 4/7/12