A neutron star forms when
giant stars run out of fuel,
clump together. Exhausted stars, endpoints
of high mass, co-inhabiting.
Grandma knows about science,
has had papers published; knows that
if residents bind together,
don’t stay slumped, spread out, they create
gravitational waves.
When they form, neutron stars
rotate in space. As they compress and shrink,
the spinning speeds up –
it’s angular momentum –
the precise same principle that causes
a spinning skater to speed up
when she pulls in her arm,
or when Bernard, beneath the blinking
disco lights, lets go of Grandma.
In the main hall, breath held, all
wonder how this moment
might make the universe resound.