loop theory

Adrien Kade Sdao

bat wings beat bustling emptiness
babies cling with clutching claws 
to ma’s furred breast
boundary between blush and air blurs

zoom in
zoom in
zoom in

molecular flames flutter ethereal
stutter hysterical, bating our demons
catching our breath
playing pale light over hasty hands

zoom in
zoom in
zoom in

descend into the
fog from a distant
mountaintop and see
no change from peak
to valley, no change
from air to earth
to fire to life-
giving water

zoom in
planck length
particle waves

it’s all star stuff
all particles
all waves
all leaping grains
ever-shifting
ever-still

perceive the fingers
perceive the rings
silver-encircled
encircling worlds

what rigs that pearlescent orb
in the immediate far reaches 
of our swirling Sol system
surrounds systems—
respiratory
nervous
digestive
surrounds brains
surrounds our
skeletal remains
somehow it
all remains

contained
within each
breath the 
universe
undulates
perpetual

The Science

This poem is inspired by concepts I have learned about through the writings of Carlo Rovelli (Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, etc.). Dr. Rovelli's beautifully crafted prose detailing the specifics of quantum loop theory affected the way I perceive the order of the world and the fact of my own existence among suns and planets as well as finite quantum grains that still elude definition. Particularly important are the ideas of blurring on a quantum scale and the effervescent nature of matter in its smallest iteration. I was also inspired by recent images of Jupiter and Neptune from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The Poet

Adrien Kade Sdao (they/them) is a writer and career bookseller. They earned their MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles in 2019, and their MA in Children’s Literature from Kansas State University in 2023. Their work has appeared in Drunk Monkeys, Fterota Logia, Sierra Nevada Review, and more.

Next poem: Mushroom is a synecdoche by Corrado Nai