reaction to the naming room

When the room filled with mathematicians and programmers

And the great hole of the universe began to loom so close

Above our heads that we could touch it, that it rained

I threw my jacket against theirs in the wind

And tried my hand in the great game

Of making a skeleton of all there is to know.

But when it hung perfectly against the silent rack

And all applauded my great head, I knew

The only thing I wanted to do was

Take a beer or two into the narrow hallway

Before the sterile bathroom of this great hall

And ask them to sit

And open the beer with my lighter

And take a sip and pass it over,

Reveling in the strange sharp incongruity

Of their eyebrows and their eyes

And focus for a moment,

Take all the wonder and fear

and all the things I do not know

And let them all out, if only in my eyes, and ask them,

“what is it like for you, to be alive?”