July 2015
My poetry collections include Rhythm & Booze (2003), Jazz Funeral (2009), and Paper Bullets (2014). Individual poems have appeared in journals including The Antioch Review, Barrow Street, Measure, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, and The Southern Review. The 2011-2013 Louisiana Poet Laureate, I am a Professor of English at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where I received the 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award. Please visit my website.
Particle Physics
They say two photons fired through a slit
stay paired together to the end of time;
if one is polarized to change its spin,
the other does a U-turn on a dime,
although they fly apart at speeds of light
and never cross each other’s paths again,
like us, a couple in the seventies,
divorced for almost thirty years since then.
Tonight a Red Sox batter homered twice
to beat the Yankees in their playoff match,
and, sure as I was born in Boston, when
that second ball deflected off the bat,
I knew your thoughts were flying back to me,
though your location was a mystery.
-first published in Mezzo Cammin
©2015 Julie Kane