The Atomic Swerve

freely adapted from Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 
(On the Nature of Things), Bk. 2, ll. 217-225

Let’s get one fundamental
clear. As atoms stream
into the void’s unceasing 
depths, like rain falls, 
straight as stair rods, 
there comes a random 
undetermined point
where each will sway, 
unmeasurably, from 
the vertical. Without this 
fortunate glitch, no atom 
would incline to clash 
or clinch with any other, 
and our mother Nature, 
confined in unconverging 
parallels, could not 
conceive a thing. On this, 
of all the infinite worlds,
it is the cue-ball’s kiss
against the blue 
which skews it, pat, 
into the pocket. Ours 
are gods of top-spin, feint
and slice, not base-line
thunderers. Kink, bend,
and deviation govern here.
Not straight.