Ununoctium, “Periodic Table” poem by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers
Ununoctium
Janet Kuypers
from the “ Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#118, Uuo)
I first only heard of you a decade ago.
You seemed so reactive, so unstable,
and yet I was so attracted to you.
I should have known better.
I should have known that
your radioactive personality would
cause your destruction, so I guess
I’m glad I’m not around to see it.
I have only seen you three or four times
since you started to self-destruct,
so from afar I can only guess
what you’re made of, or what you can do.
But still, I can’t get you out of my mind,
so I’m left here to guess about you,
based on what little I could ever infer
about you. This is all you leave me.
When I saw you before, you seemed
kind, and noble when you were with me…
But that was before I saw what you
were made of, how hard you could be.
So much emanated from you with me,
but you’ve systematically shattered
any preconceived notions of who you are,
that I don’t even know what to believe.
You’re that explosive, and I’ve been
unsuccessful in any attempts to synthesize
with you… It’s funny, you seem
like you want to be discovered,
but I can only predict, calculate, or
extrapolate what I think you can do.
If only you would let me crack your shell
so I could see what you’re made of…
Alex Sparks Hashtag America
Alex Sparks’ submission for the 2013 Write Bloody Publishing Contest
Alex has put the words here:
Has youth really changed or, is each generation just more aware of the struggles of the youth of earlier generations. It’s like Alex carries my Vietnam generation inside himself. I realize too that I carry the very true feeling of separation and gallant struggle of WW II.
We are conceived from the young. It is the young sperm and egg that carry those passions to the next generation and, somehow latent memories themselves. I was born in 1948 and I somehow remember the big one. Alex relives Vietnam in the same way .Those latent inherited memories help butterflies get to Peru.
Our wars and protests are imprinted in each generation of children as latent memories and we have to stop.
No, youth has not changed so much. It just went from Clark Kent to James Dean to John Lennon to Alex. Youth seems to be getting it right and is getting smarter more quickly. The trouble is that we taught them our peace and love but we kinda traded it in on a piece of land. We should be prouder of who we were then.
We young hippy turned yuppie baby boomers changed the world, and we find the new youth still just as fervent and confused, just as young and wonderful as we, and smarter.
david michael jackson