in the capital city where the unfamiliar name 
is love God is water mountain bluebird and daffodil 
ladyslipper devil’s club and penstemmon 
your mercy for all women and men your beloved breath for all clay 
where physics and metaphysics kiss o lift our faces breathe into our mouths 

you were never meant to be abandoned o God 
jim mcpherson proposed each world citizen approximate 
the ideals of the world be on conversant terms with it 
carry each culture inside for by wearing these clothes like a V of shed horns 
we are a synthesis i.e. mercy the responsibility uniting quantum mechanics and relativity 
God we abandoned you but with your love we die generously 
our hands upturned like votive candles the spirit comes fractures the air with iridescent fire 
with terror with indelible gladness written on our skin the garment we shy from before we open
like hungry nuclear children and eat please split atoms in us she and i starving to death everyday 

                                                                 iv.7 
                                                                 —for Lucille Clifton and Sherman Alexie 

Shann Ray | Atomic Theory 432, iv.8
Contents | Mudlark No. 64 (2018)