Stellar-cross'd lovers

By: Harry (School of Chemistry)
Competition Year: 2017
Votes (3) | Comments (0)
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In a gallery of pictures
Two young spritely creatures wandered
Until adjacent in front of a Warhol they pondered:
‘are they going to say anything?’. Thoughts heard,
He said: hey?

‘He has overcome the saddle point!’
She thought turning around,
(Since it takes an input of energy for strangers
To speak and make social ground)

Small talk was made, the print was assessed
Things got more personal,
He asked what she studied, she looked kind of distressed…

‘Chemistry. You?’
‘Fine art.’
Silence ensued

He was art and
She was science
In principle it was fairly simple

But for two so smart
They did sense
That in practice things were different

When science meets art cultures collide
‘Which is more important?’: a matter of pride
But academic. There’s no need to pick a side.
Except on campus where there is actually a divide.

‘Science makes living easier,
though art gives us reason to live’

She thinks ‘He’ll be so edgy!
And I’m such a square’
Whilst he thinks ‘christ she’ll talk science,
And I’ll zone out and stare!’

Because science is complicated
Without years of study
and its easy to feel isolated,
in labs without a buddy

Our two creatures knew this
And made efforts to understand
What is was like for one another
And what their fields demand

‘We are bound by the laws of physics’
‘And for us there are rules of aesthetics’
They paused and looked at each other…
And in their chest their hearts ticked

He confessed his love for the EM spectrum
In the context of street photography
Candid photos of bacterium
(was her goal) using electron microscopy

Are experiments so different
Whether the medium is sketching paper
Or a silicon wafer?

Perhaps they could date? And it wouldn’t be weird
They could find common ground. Nothing to be feared!

And so she asked with all her courage:

‘Do you want to grab a drink?
Alcohol might help me I think’
‘Is that for nerves or insolubility?’
‘More for conversational agility’

Hand in hand the couple left for a date
Unhindered by the gulf of dissimilarity
They left their romance to be decided by fate
There might be symmetry despite opposite parity???

It probably won’t work out.
How often do you hear about a scientist and an artist getting married?
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