That’s Chemistry

Curious Curie, you played
with atoms as unstable
as a shaky surgeon, elements
as bad as Cain to Abel.

The isotopes you isolated
glowed like a warning label,
harming you even as they joined
the periodic table.

And yet, your inspiration’s led
to novel therapies
and may fulfill your wish and bring
all cancers to their knees.

Ra-di-o-ac-tiv-i-ty—
the word cries, “Danger! Danger!”
But now the very sun itself
no longer is a stranger.