Ions by Tyler Gao

During Week 4 Muster, Year 8 student Tyler shared a poem about chemistry that combined clear scientific ideas with sharp wordplay. The poem was written as part of his poetry studies and was inspired by “59” by Harry Baker, which all Year 8 classes explored in English.

Tyler’s poem is below, please click here to watch his reading at Muster.  

Ions 

Chlorine hated himself.

See, while his neighbours had full outer shells
He was stuck needing just one more electron.

He would wake up, and despite his positive charge,
His sadness would enlarge,
When argon, the guy next door,
With just one electron more,
Made Chlorine’s jaw
Drop to the floor
With the full outer shell that he wore

Now Chlorine, deciding to try his luck,
Showed up one night at a bonding potluck.
And as soon as he stepped through the door
His electron orbitals buzzed…
They buzzed because his electrons felt some sort of
Ionic attraction,
Creating some sort of chain reaction
And he ended up in an interaction

With Sodium.

Now Sodium was not unlike Chlorine.
Everywhere she went she was stuck –
Stuck with this one pesky electron
Stuck with this one imperfection
Stuck with this one section
To which she had no affection

Until she, at the very same potluck,
Felt her electrons run amuck.
And in particular, this one electron
Who she had wanted to rid for oh so long,

Was ripped from her outer shell
Freeing her from electrostatic attraction
In a brilliant show of electron transaction

You could tell there was a lot of chemistry between the two.
And, well, wasn’t it ionic
That chlorine was toxic and sodium unstable
But together they formed the salt on your table.

So together in a crystal layout
Sodium and chlorine now walk out
As ions with their eye-on each other
A sweet couple, or salty rather