Grade Ten Science

Experiment:

a test to see
how one variable
affects another.

Let's experiment
to see how I affect you
and how you affect me.

[Cue the teenage philosophy:
"Eureka!
We'll call it 'love'
and announce it on FaceBook]

[Begin]

Cool to the touch,
that you can't have
quite yet (but you can
still see it in my eyes.)

Breaking the ice hurts,
a little bit, like always;
awkward silences are so loud.

[Temperature rise:
23°, room temperature]
Our thermostats are resting
comfortably.

Walking down crowded hallways,
holding hands, [All the while,
the cat holds their tongues.]
but that doesn't stop us
from showing them how it's done.

[A month passes:
They celebrate their anniversary;
While others in the world
enjoy their twenty-fifth.]

Friday nights at the movies:
our mouths are to occupied
with each other to notice the stares.

(Impromptu education
for the ten year old
with the wandering eyes)

[End Film]

The lights come on,
as we come up
for air and prudes' glares.

We go home,
[Their exit is accompanied
by awkward laughter
and feeble conversation]
and I think we have a connection.

[11:32]

The last text I get from you
says "goodnite "
and now that I'm alone
I get to think.

You're not romantic.
You're not very thoughtful either.
Guess this isn't as good as T.V.,
but that's okay!

That's just fine,
that's just normal!
[The adolescent obsession
named "normal"]

Sure, we're not romance novels,
[only ordinary textbooks,
complete with missing pages]
so why pretend?

Enough of the games,
and this messing around.
Let's get back to science.
(And hope it saves us)

Let's turn the heat up
and watch the sparks fly;
hope the passion catches fire,
because I can see my breath.

It's getting cold out.

It's getting cold in.

Through the smoke and the ashes;
and the classroom carnage,
the burner's burnt out.

But we aren't.

...

Are we?

[End]