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Conservation of Matter
i.
They say that we breathe
the same air that filled
the lungs of
Julius Caesar and Jesus Christ,
Mammoths and Mussolini;
that life fades, but particles,
they last.
There is power in particles;
Life-giving
and
war-making
are not so dissimilar,
after all.
I wish to last.
ii.
I wish to fall apart,
to disintegrate into my
elemental parts and
scatter,
never to recohere.
The opposite of
reincarnation,
from phoenix
to ashes;
this is my nirvana.
Not death but disassembly.
iii.
When I die,
do not cremate me,
darling.
Separate my atoms
and start a
War.
Imogen Rosenbluth is a second-year undergraduate in the creative writing program at Brandeis University. Her work has appeared on the New York Times Learning Network and in the What About Peace? International Youth Arts publication, and I won the Edith Garlow Memorial Poetry Contest in 2011.
Email: Imogen Rosenbluth
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