Boris consistently felt like a fool,
Was teased at his own element-ary school.
The teacher would label him evil, depraved,
’Cause he simply couldn’t be well-behaved:
“Your lack of respect, I just cannot fathom;
You ruin the name of all carbon atoms!
As punishment, you must go wait in ‘time out.’
Now move it, and don’t make my orbital shout!”
So every day he would go to that corner.
He constantly felt like an unwanted foreigner.
His classmates did look all exactly the same,
And to them, to tease him was just like a game.
“Hey, look at Boris,” would start the abuse,
“He weighs just eleven a.m.u.’s!
But even with only five ’lectrons of charge,
He’s still so unbelievably large!”
Those tinier carbon atoms would kid,
“You really destroy our crystalline grid!
Why don’t you go on and find your way out?
You ruin our tetrahedral layout!”
Their jeers and derisions became systemic,
Insulting his talents academic.
“Boris is dumb as a vacant subshell,
And he can’t even bond to things half as well!”
In school they were learning to form a diamond.
Their final exam was quickly arrivin’.
In order for them a nice diamond to form,
He’d need to follow the rules and the norms.
What they didn’t know was that Boris would try,
But he’d fail to fit in and he didn’t know why;
All others would bond to the carbons nearby,
But he’d stir them all up, making things go awry.
He’d carefully studied the teacher’s directions
But hadn’t the ’lectrons to make the connections
To help them create the consummate gem.
He simply felt … well, different from them.
Then, on the day of their final exam,
For which all the others did carelessly cram,
Boris, who’d studied, put forth all his might,
But he still failed to get a single thing right.
The teacher was saddened. “See, I had a dream
That my students may finally work as a team.
It’s hopeless. I’ve given you all of the tools,
But your diamond breaks several textbook rules!”
And she pointed at Boris. “It’s all your fault!”
Then somebody summoned her speech to a halt:
“My goodness, this diamond—it’s gorgeous! It’s only an
Arm’s length away from display at Smithsonian!”
The teacher was baffled and offered corrections.
“I thought that this diamond had imperfections.”
“Well, on a molecular level, that’s true,
But it’s due to those ‘flaws’ that this diamond is blue!
Diamonds of blue are rare indeed,
And the cause of the hue is a tiny seed
Of trace amounts of boron embedded.
This atom and others like him get the credit!”
He pointed to Boris, who eagerly called,
“I’m not a carbon, after all?”
And as his classmates cheered him on,
The “ugly carbon” became a swan.
_______________________________
(In addition to appearing in Atomic Romances, Molecular Dances, this poem was performed for a 2004 episode of the poetry video series P.L.A.C.E.S., produced by Philips Hasouris and james g.h. moore).
