Doggerelium

by Steven Utley

If I could be an element
and you could be one, too,
I’d be carbon to your oxygen,
and we’d make CO₂.
We could both be helium
if given extra choices,
and lie around inertly
talking in our squeaky voices.

Radium’s an option, too;
you’d like its greenish spark.
We’d get a book by Doctor Seuss
and read it in the dark.
Or we might decide to be
uranium instead;
we could have a race to see
who first decayed to lead.

There’re many other elements,
a hundred, maybe more.
Some are rare, but some exist
in quantities galore.
I’ll introduce you to them all
(except for one or two:
somebody owns exclusive rights
to mine the precious few).

But pick a spot you fancy
on the periodic table,
and however you like it,
whether volatile or stable,
if we both were elements
and taught about in schools,
we could swap electrons
and make some molecules.

Copyright © 2004 by Steven Utley