poem Ununpentium, a poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#115, Uup), By Chicago Poet and performance artist Janet Kuypers — Ununpentium poem, Periodic Table poem, Uup poem, died poem, born poem, last poem, loved poem, quick: poem, a hundred milliseconds poem, half-life poem, short poem, February second poem, philosophy poem, chemical reactions poem, unintended consequences poem, pent up friction poem, smash poem, ion poem, survive poem, measure poem, bombarded poem, high excitation energy poem, hot fusion poem, destruction poem, systematic elemental bombardment poem, radioactive reaction poem, occur in nature poem, Russian and American scientist team poem, americium-243 poem, calcium-48 ions poem, eka-bismuth poem, IUPAC poem, 200 milliseconds poem, decay poem, 100 milliseconds poem

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Ununpentium
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#115, Uup)*
11/27/12
A month before you died,
on the day that she was born,
that was very possibly the last day
I talked to you.
I know you loved me,
but in the grand scheme of things,
you had to know
this relationship couldn’t last.
When you first asked me out,
My answer was quick:
I think it was
a hundred milliseconds
before I said no.
You had to know
that with a half-life so short,
we didn’t stand a chance.
And on that day, February second,
I sat on the other side of the country
at a bar with a man
who introduced me to philosophy.
It was good to see him,
to remind myself
of how I wanted to live.
Remembering how chemical reactions
were supposed to last,
I then realized
the ununtended consequences
of this pent up friction
between us.
Try to smash the right
ions from us together,
see what happens.
See if anything survives
long enough to even measure.
You know you had an uphill battle with me.
#
A hundred and fifteen days
after February 2nd,
three months after you died,
that was when I almost died too.
Because even though you bombarded me
with your high excitation energy,
this hot fusion would never work.
And look at what was left of me.
I didn’t want you to die.
I didn’t want you to be destroyed.
Did you seal your fate
by trying to bond with a part of me,
or should I have trusted my first instincts
so that your destruction would hurt me less.
I wish I could have told you
that this systematic elemental
bombardment of us,
this radioactive reaction,
was only temporary,
this doesn’t occur in nature,
we had to work so hard
to merely try to make something of us.
And as much as I hate to admit it,
I wonder
if this
was never meant to be.

* A Russian and American scientist team
bombarded americium-243 with calcium-48 ions to produce
ununpentium, historically known as eka-bismuth.
Ununpentium is a temporary IUPAC systematic element name
derived from the digits 115, where “un”
is from the Latin “unum-” for one,
and “Pent-” is from the Greek word for 5.
(Scientists usually just say element 115.)
Discovered February 2nd, 2004, it has a half life
of 200 milliseconds, with decay at 100 milliseconds.
(“Hot” fusion reactions deal with the synthesis
of nuclei of ununpentium at high excitation energy.)

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Sony) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Canon) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Sony) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Canon) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Download this poem in the free chapbook
On the Edge of the Table,
w/ the Periodic Table of Poetry poems
toward the end of the Periodic Table.

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago’ Frankenstone Art Gallery 12/17/12 (Canon, with a Sepia Tone filter)

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago’ Frankenstone Art Gallery 12/17/12 (Canon)

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago’ Frankenstone Art Gallery 12/17/12 (Canon, with a sharpened film grain filter)

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago’ Frankenstone Art Gallery 12/17/12 (Canon, with a Posterize filter)

Ununpentium

my hand to an anim of jkchair