Excruciating Atoms

by Steven Marty Grant
(New York City)

I tried
to calculate
the weight of sorrow;
break it down
to its component parts.

Duplicate fermions
were assumed
to be irrelevant
based on Pauli’s spin.
Intrinsic angular
momentums
were observed
and each element
was cataloged
and classified.

Heartbreak (Hb7)
was a constant
as was Loss (Gn3)
and its partner
Pain (Ow4).

Each
excruciating atom
was taken into account
right down to the quark.

The final analysis
determined
that up and down,
charm and strange
failed to add up
to the collective mass
required to account
for this leaden feeling
in my chest.