god but i hate chem he says & i agree mutely (and i'm
caught up just
looking at him he's indignant brilliant)
help me for the test he badboy grins i'll pay you back somehow & i (who can't resist the stupid
tingles in my stomach, whatever they mean) say yes and so
we begin.

i lead him through alkalis and he's fucking cesium, fucking toxic (and i'm
too late & addicted; he's as
beautiful as butterflydust & radioactive cscl) (and when i make the connection,
hastily we pass through to alkalines (alkaline-earth i say and he laughs, why the -earth (& he's just
as necessary)
be sweet & carcinogenic, mg, ca
sr (burns water & i can't concentrate and pause &
try not to think)

steady and simply i (try) i go on into electricity & electrons,
metallic bonding (and he's au & ag & pt, the fe
holding me up he's quicksilver fast & gorgeous when he moves, he's w my fake sun-

metalloids aren't covered on the test as much and so
i rush like electricity in silicon, in a fixed path towards non-metals
he reaches over to calm me down (and fuck but he's oxygen and i hate the cliché
he's violate and a fool's gold he's
a diamond & soot together, like drinking liquid nitrogen (and i'm crumbling at his touch)

i say we need mostly halogens
for the test, memorize them if you know what they are? (the halogens i say
to him are the ones that never let go of anything) and he smiles a yes; flirting f
clinging cl (& it burns my eyes but i keep on looking)
breathtaking br irresistible i
(aesthetic at & he laughs at my big sat-words (and am i speaking aloud)

I don't know what dreams of made of, but stars are made of h
and he's h2o, breaking salts apart, conflicting
separated ions struggling to stay apart/together. he's
the earth & ocean & air, c & h & o & n (and he's c10h14n2 &
c17h21no4, he's my impure c11h15no2.)