Charm and beauty

The scientists at the 

large hadron collider

in Switzerland now say

that without the decay

of the subatomic particles,

called beauty quarks,

matter might not exist.

Beauty is one of the flavors

of those elemental particles

known as quarks.

The universe is built of tiny stuff

with flavors named beauty

and charm. And another flavor

known as strangeness.

It’s too complicated

for me to understand completely,

but the notion is appealing.

Charm and beauty. And strangeness

I read about the weight

of storm clouds that

was enumerated

in the weight of the

equivalent number

of elephants.

A typical fluffy cumulous cloud

weighs as much

as a hundred elephants.

A storm cloud weighs

as much as thousands.

Watching the clouds over

Lake Tahoe last week,

I imagined them as herds

of elephants

walking across the sky.

The mountain whitethorn

was in massive bloom,

each tiny blossom emitting

it’s tiny nearly imperceptible scent.

But magnified, and multiplied

in it’s multitudes,

the air was filled with a delicate

sweetness.

The universe is made

of charm and beauty.

And strangeness.