QUIETLY FLOWS THE DON

He makes a joke about Pavlov's dog
chasing Schrödinger's cat, references
some German-sounding philosopher
that none of us first-years has ever
heard of. We crane forward like chicks,

gaping for his regurgitated food
for thought in an office stacked high
with books. I know he wants us to think
that he has read all of them: he told me
that he had that time he touched my knee.

Physics does not come instinctively,
like metaphysics; it is about hard learnt fact.
I saw the hardness of his fact that day
through his trousers. Physics is about particles,
molecules, atoms, solids, liquids, gases

and the rules that make them act
and interact. He thinks he's a magnet.
The rules of magnetism are that opposites
attract. Perhaps I am too like him for that:
he repels me. I need to pass his physics class.