Time dilation

Wilmo Ernesto Francisco Junior

At the speed of light
I give myself to another transition.
I must return from where shouldn’t have left.
To the fundamental condition
of your steady presence.
But the clock here is not ticking.
A quantum delirium
for your absence.
Nonsense.

The Science

This poem is a metaphor for the absence of a loved person inspired by both atomic electron transition and special relativity principles. Such theories caused a paradigm shift responsible for sudden drastic changes on the science understanding. Short and quick, as an atomic transition or a particle at the light speed, the poem depicts the complex behaviour of an object travelling at the speed of light. However, this is inconceivable (a delirium) from everyday life based on tangible and non-relativistic things. Time dilation is a rupture with the classical idea in which time is believed to be universal and absolute. Closer to the speed of light, time is relative and slower in comparison to an inertial frame of reference (an object with no net force). In turn, an atomic electron transition (when an electron changes from a lower energy level to a higher energy level and quickly returns to the lower level) is very quick, just a few nanoseconds or less. Time can be desperately longer with quick moments of happiness in a life without love.

The Poet

Wilmo Ernesto Francisco Junior is a Professor of Science Education at Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil. He is also a poet interested both in public communication of science and the educational process intertwining Art and Science.

Next poem: Time is quickening by Mary Allen