Superconducting Supercolliders

Berlin

Colored lights above a stranger,
piezo crystals, pickup dark;
circuits quiet in a soundboard
pull electrons into arcs.

I’ll always see the line of the cityscape
lit up bright against dark sky;
streets that glaze with water reflecting
streetlights red and green,
transiting machines, incomplete routines—
rain that washes the city clean.

Glutamate above a synapse,
long-term potentials make their mark;
ionic flux becomes a memory,
inscribing history into sparks.

I’ll always see the line of the cityscape
lit up only in my mind;
nights that glaze with memory reflecting
self as slot machine bridged with dopamine,
hazes of caffeine—
Come back to the mean:
Chemicals burn hot and clean.

Are you sure the lights were green?
Are you sure that the lights were green?

Running down the aisles to click tracks,
Overdrive, clean-boost your part,
lay it down as neural pathways:
someone’s childhood pries apart.

I can’t see the line of the cityscape,
dimming lights against dark sky;
nights that fade with memory reflecting
self as slot machine bridged with dopamine,
hazes of caffeine—
I don’t know what you mean.
And were the stage lights green?
We watched behind the scenes.

Memories don’t burn clean.