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This poem (about the wave/particle duality of light) was written for Dr. Stan Schmidt, the editor of Analog magazine who bought my first science fiction story, as a thank-you note. I sometimes sing it to a country tune, using the first stanza as the chorus.

The Fashion of Physics *

by Marianne J. Dyson


The photon is a woman
deciding what to wear,
A patterned or a solid dress?
the answer isn't clear.

If you peek while she's deciding
she'll choose one just for you,
But when your back is turned again
she'll try on something new.

Even with a closet full
she'll not be satisfied,
For styles often cancel out
or wrongly coincide.

She'll slip into a dressing room
to test out something sheer,
Then change into a rigid mood
unhappy with the mirror.

Eventually she is arrayed
to interact with you,
But she arrives, to your surprise
in not one gown, but two!


*as published in Analog Science Fiction magazine, April, 1993