Alive with Jostling Particles¹

Matter tells Space how to Curve,
And Space tells Matter how to Move²
If it feels to you that we’re Connected
By a Larger Whole, you’re Mistaken:
We’re connected by a Smaller Particle³
We build a world Dust Particle by Dust
Particle, by Stacking them on top of one
Another with impossibly small Tweezers⁴
Two Molecules Clanging against each other
Require an Observer to become Scientific Data⁵
Galaxies & Particles in themselves propose nothing⁶
Behold the Atom I prefer to all the Lists of Clay⁷
A Perfect Description of a Small Particle
Of Dust would take an Everlasting Time⁸
Each Molecule Preaches Perfect Law⁹
Consciousness Nestles among
The Atoms themselves¹⁰

¹ Yukio Mishima tr. Nathan, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
² Douglas Adams, Life, The Universe and Everything
³ David Eagleman, Conservation
⁴ Tamas Dobozy, Operative O
⁵ Allen Ginsberg, Cosmopolitan Greetings
⁶ John Berger, And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos
⁷ Emily Dickinson, Of All the Souls
⁸ Alan Watts, The Way of Zen
⁹ Shutaku tr. Stryk & Ikemoto, Mind Set Free in the Dharma-Realm
¹⁰ Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass