The scientist, one of a team tending to the Large Collider,
a member of a profession not known for poetry,
takes pages and pages of notes from the latest experiments
studying the accelerated particles of neutrons and protons.
Trying to understand the secrets of the smallest parts
of the natural world, and how they might behave in the air around us.

Within his journal, filled with mathematical symbols
and very scientific notations the researcher pauses,
and writes a peculiarly unscientific comment.

This note strikes a chord that surprises,
“- The air between us is not empty space.”
Reflecting on the notations, the math, and the poetic remark,
the physicist makes an intuitive leap.
Do these particles fuel the sparks of emotions,
perhaps signaling how we feel about those around us?

This theory, he considers, may still be too foolhardy to publish in a paper.
But hopeful, the researcher taps the number displayed on his phone
with optimism she will understand all of the evidence
recently collected that might explain how he feels about her.