The Uncertainty Principle
But though she kissed me as a child would do,
She clung on a little longer than she needed to.
Jake Thackray “The Kiss”
Hold a rule beside her measured look.
Precisely fix the time it took
to meet and break away.
Illuminate the millisecond more
that leans to trespass from unsure
deniability.
And there a wave, her smile, is breaking wider,
to touch the tangent, to surprise the
ticking Geiger counter.
Peel the membrane from the moment’s shimmer.
Feel it pulse. Protect it. Shiver.
Shade it from the light.
Befriend the springboard. Trust its kick. Become
the arc, the push and pull, the hum
of algebra and hope.
Joe Crocker hasn’t worked in years. He succumbed to a muse during Covid and has had some success in online poetry platforms. Otherwise he is eye-wateringly uninteresting. Googling him will tell you all about a deceased Sheffield-born rock singer.
Note: An earlier version of this poem appeared in Blue Unicorn (US), Fall 2023