Sreedhar Vinnakota
We Men
We grappled, bit by bit
unravelling the universe
with Einstein’s relativity
and Planck’s quantum
to understand aging
twins, shrinking rods,
slowing clocks, atoms
floating, and pixellated
light, all the while
feeling smug and smart
that we could
control the universe
and dictate its future
until we heard
the shots that splattered
blood and turned
the blackboard red.
Sreedhar Vinnakota is a theoretical physicist who lives in Chennai, India.