Antiparticular . . . and so on . . .

     Writer and St Mary's University (in Halifax) mathematics professor Robert Dawson enjoys composing both poetry and fiction -- and his work has been included in a number of previous postings in this blog.  Recently he has published several poems in Polar Starlight, a new Canadian magazine of speculative poetry; the poem below, "Antiparticular" -- in which Dawson plays with the meaning of "anti" -- appeared in the June 2022 issue.  (All issues of Polar Starlight are available online at this link.)

         Antiparticular     by Robert Dawson

     Physicists have produced, for many a day,
     Anti-electrons, even antiprotons,
     But nobody has yet, to my dismay,
     Claimed the discovery of antiphotons.
     They move (in theory) at the speed of dark,
     They carry lethargy but have no mass.

     When Edison made bulbs at Menlo Park,
     Why did he not invent a second class?
     Find me a darkbulb, that can wrap the room
     In soothing shadow subtle and serene,
     Or pocket flashdark, casting rays of gloom,
     To obfuscate things better left unseen,
     And when the daytime ceases to delight,
     I'll switch the darkness on, and bring the night.

THANK YOU, Robert Dawson, for your ongoing celebration of math-science in art!