A fraction

A moment flits, fast and away

Over a distant hill, the moon;

But there remains

The shadow of its presence.

It shot like a star across the sky,

It came and went,

But it never left-

I still see it, like a crumbled wall

When a tsunami has blown it to bits.

A moment, the indivisible,

The not-to-be thought of -

Because I am incapable of

Thinking so small -

Is a quark,

A fraction of a particle.

Under a lens, it may not make a difference

Not to stocks or stomachs or broken roofs.

But I’ve heard that every quark in an ice cube determines the pattern of its crystals.