Particle or Wave

Particle or wave
he asked
and I wanted to say
one lump or two
but didn't.


I didn't know if he
would get it
brilliant as he is
because our childhoods
did not collide.


Light from the
Big Bang is not really
from then at all
because photography
had not been invented.


I showed you a photo
of my mother and I
said here she is
as a little girl
and you said huh.


In the photo she is thirty-five
and she is sitting next to
her alcoholic father
on a bench years after he
had left forever.


How is this a photo
of her when she was
a little girl
you asked handing the
photo back to me.


Standing over you I said
remember it took
three hundred eighty thousand years
for the universe to cool enough
to show up on film.


Is that all
you said and laughed
and I said yeah and it took
thirty-some years for the
kid to show up in her.