At sixteen, spinning and rumbling,
I learned the physics of infatuation—
how mass times acceleration equals
exhilaration, how desire is greater
than the product of heart rate and vertigo,

how shampooed tresses overcome
the smells of tar, grease and funnel cakes,
how, tossed by that giant centrifuge,
our denim-wrapped hips and thighs
pressed the way they never would naked,

how you proved Sir Isaac Newton
a bald-faced, long-haired liar
when you disproved the law
of conservation of momentum, proving lust
in motion does not remain in motion.
 
 
~ ~ ~

James Wilk is a physician in Denver specializing in medical disorders complicating pregnancy. His poems have appeared in 42 Magazine, Pearl, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Folio, Boston Literary Magazine and others. He is the author of two chapbooks, Shoulders, Fibs, and Lies (Pudding House Press) and The Seven Year Night: Poems of the Medical Training Experience (Big Table Publishing).