Untitled
Kaylee Aguas ‘25
This piece represents how I view my grandma and her father: as butterflies in my life, since butterflies represent those who have passed on. Though my grandma has not passed, her father has, and she absolutely loves butterflies, and she is the one who told me that butterflies represent our loved ones. This picture was taken moments before her father passed, and I made it to show how she is in color, while the world around her is in black and white. The butterfly ring further connects the butterfly symbolism to her relationship with me and her father (my great-grandpa).
Quantum Entanglement
Two particles are linked with one another,
connected even when light-years apart.
Is it an absence of independence?
A symbiotic partnership?
Where she goes, I follow,
holding on to her every word.
It’s seared into my brain, the all-too-familiar image of her
lips twitching to the side, freckled nose scrunched,
breathing me in,
before we became interconnected.
Now, we are light-years apart.
I no longer feel the touch of her lips on mine.
The hearts her fingers traced on my chest
have disappeared.
The nails I always wore, just for her to play with,
are now bare.
What’s left is
a quick side hug, a replacement
for her arms thrown around my neck,
her hands slipped around my waist.
An awkward “hi”
instead of, “You’re my everything.”
But, because entangled particles
are intrinsically linked,
We find each other.
An unexpected kiss turns into,
“I’ve always loved you, and I’ve never stopped,”
An, “I want to give us a chance.”
Because of the limits of the universe,
an entangled particle cannot be forced into a particular state.
Connection is random and infrequent.
We now exist only in each other's minds.
But, because of quantum entanglement,
we remain connected, even over vast distances.
A connection that is less communication
and more unification.
A bond that, if disentangled,
would destroy systems beyond itself.
This piece started out as a creative writing prompt that asked me to use a scientific phenomenon to explain a feeling or situation. It then morphed to describe the push and pull of teenage romance with an emphasis on its spontaneity and fragility. I drew from my own experiences and tried to incorporate the experiences of others in this poem.