Crucible

a poem

Jean Wimmerlin / Unsplash (edited)

In the old school lab
we perched on metal stools,
behind work benches
of royal oak ingrained
with blots of carbonised shellac,
dusted with chalk.

Here we learnt the basics
of oxidation,
kinetics and bonding,
and we filled blank pages
with tables of alchemy,
its molecules and compounds.