Martha Silano

Why I Want to Be a Noble Gas

Because noble gases are non-reactive, have a low boiling point.
Because they’re inert, rarely involved in chemical reactions.
Because Argon is Greek for idle, inactive.
Because Xenon is Greek for strange. 

Because Krypton has no idea what you mean by recoil.
Because Neon never tries to get even.
Because a noble gas has never
swallowed a dead fish head 

dangling from the end of a lure. Because it’s nice to have a narrow liquid range,
better to have a full shell of electrons than to always be seeking a few
from someone else. Because it would suck to be sodium,
always donating its one electron to chlorine. Because 

it would also suck to be chlorine, always stealing an electron from sodium.
Because to be highly reactive, Francium or Cesium,
is to always need to have the last word.
Because if I were a noble gas, 

I’d be the balloon floating up and away from the Screaming Swing
and the Scrambler, the fluorescent light in my father’s workroom,
the one he studied under
long into the night.

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Martha Silano is the author of five books of poetry, including Gravity Assist, Reckless Lovely and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, all from Saturnalia Books. She is also co-author of The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice (Two Sylvias Press). Martha’s poems have appeared in Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review and in the Best American Poetry series, among others. Honors include North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Prize and The Cincinnati Review’s Robert and Adele Schiff Award in Poetry. She teaches at Bellevue College, near her home in Seattle, WA. Learn more about Martha and her work at marthasilano.net.