In our quantum field theory class,

the genius-professor, Arnowitt,

showed us how to constrain space-time,

and a proton was born.

We stretched it in the Dirac equation,

and it snapped back

to a quivering wave function

that decayed in a half-life

of ten-to-the-forty years.

“But,” Arnowitt concluded, “the universe

is only ten-to-the-twenty years old

so the proton won’t decay.”

I left that class aware of deeper truths.

But that was years ago,

and I still have to pay the bills.

Now, my atrophied brain

couldn’t follow that lecture again

if I wanted to.

Meanwhile, new protons are

popping up all around us,

and no one has ever figured out

how to get rid of them.