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The Alembick



Vol. XIV

I. All Saint’s Day 2019
II. Christmas 2019
III. Shrovetide 2020
IV. Quarantine 2020
  1. Editor’s Note
  2. Letters
  3. Reader’s Doubts Resolved
  4. To His Coy Mistress
  5. Cavalier Lyric
  6. A Shropshire Pig
  7. Elegiacs
  8. The Year
  9. Inkblots
  10. The Man Who Made His Exit
  11. Splitting the Atom
  12. Self-Control
  13. Antique Fragment
  14. Canzonetta
  15. Zen Poem 

Vol. XV

I. Michaelmas 2020

Submissions     ︎

Splitting the Atom


The word “atom” means indivisible,
Just like I thought we were.
You were the key ingredient
In all our favorite foods, like stinky tofu.
(To some, inedibly odious. To us, indelibly delicious.)
But then change split the atom
And everything was unclear.
All I could see at first was loss.
But in shattering me, it also unleashed a new power.
And now my quirks are unconfined.
Even in the early days I saw
A silver lining in the mushroom cloud;
I found that some fragments held up on their own.
I still love stinky tofu.
And despite my lingering cracks,
I can’t help but feel that the old me
Was the one with the half-life.

                                        Adam Ball
Running on Cargo