Time is in the shadows,
Time is in the mind,
Time is in all atoms,
Yet time is hard to find.

Space is in the planets,
Space is in the stars,
Space is in the galaxy,
Space goes very far.

Dark matter pulls the Milky Way,
It speeds the outer parts,
Invisible yet massive,
It can’t be seen on charts.

Dark energy is very quick,
Too quick for us to see,
No mass, no light, no hardness,
Yet beautiful to me.

Antimatter is not yet gone,
Pictograms are left,
An annihilation particle,
It’s the ultimate theft.

Matter conjoins everything,
It’s hard, massive, and bright,
You can touch, see, and hear it,
And it refracts most light.

Matter has all stability,
It’s probably the best,
But believe it or not,
Matter cold or hot,
Is made from all the rest.

For matter to atoms and molecules,
The simplest things in a tidepool,
They fused together and swam around,
And then grew up to be big and round,
They grew a spine, a tail, and fins,
A face, two eyes, a large, wet grin,
Evolved some legs and a pair of lungs,
And with the creatures that they were among,
Swam out of the water and onto land,
Grew scales, hard eggs, even two hands,
Grew small, grew fur, whiskers, and wait!
Already the dinos had all met their fate,
The mice became primates and mammals got tough,
Whales, wolves, and cavemen were good enough,
Soon we evolved and all these events,
Came from the true elements.

Jack Bevolo
3rd place 5th and 6th grades
LA Writes! 2008
Tchefuncte Middle School
Mandeville, LA

reprinted with permission of LA Writes!