Many Worlds, in a Pantoum

Permutations of lines and rhymes play with sound and meaning in ways that enhance both.  I particularly like the pantoum form. Hearing each line a second time -- with a new context shifting the meaning -- is an experience I particularly enjoy. This one is by Kenton Yee, a theoretical physicist working in finance, who writes both fiction and poetry.

The Many Worlds Interpretation of Classical Mechanics 

                   by Kenton K. Yee

Everything that can happen does.
She leaves work early
as a crackhead jumps off a bus.
A drunk runs a red light, barely.   

She leaves work early.
Her car doors did not lock.
A drunk runs a red light, barely.
Onto her backseat the crackhead hops.

Her car doors did not lock.
Just her luck she will be soon dead.
Onto her backseat the crackhead hops.
“Drive, baby, drive,” he says.

Just her luck she will be soon dead,
head severed, arms intact.
“Yes, mister, yes,” she says
to the crackhead in back.

Head severed, arms intact,
her belted body bruised and blue.
To the crackhead in back,
just a skirt in a pinstripe suit.

Her belted body bruised and blue.
No one looked both ways,
neither he nor the skirt in a pinstripe suit,
nor the drunk speeding their way.

No one looked both ways.
If only he or she had been a tad late,
or the drunk speeding their way.
Any little thing could have voided their fate.

If only he or she had been a tad late
as a crackhead jumps off a bus.
Any little thing could have voided their fate.
Everything that can happen does.

Yee's poem first appeared at Every Day Poets.  
Readers with questions about the origin and nature of the pantoum -- and for more examples -- are invited to follow the links to postings for 8 April 2010 and 26 September 2012.