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Archive for January 28th, 2009

John Updike: “Cosmic Gall”

Posted by matt on 28 January 2009

 

john-updike

COSMIC GALL

Neutrinos, they are very small. 
They have no charge and have no mass 
And do not interact at all. 
The earth is just a silly ball 
To them, through which they simply pass, 
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall 
Or photons through a sheet of glass. 
They snub the most exquisite gas, 
Ignore the most substantial wall, 
Cold shoulder steel and sounding brass, 
Insult the stallion in his stall, 
And scorning barriers of class, 
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall 
and painless guillotines, they fall 
Down through our heads into the grass. 
At night, they enter at Nepal 
and pierce the lover and his lass 
From underneath the bed-you call 
It wonderful; I call it crass.

John Updike (b. 18 March 1932)

image: John Updike Dead at 76 by Wolf Gang

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