Raining Diamonds

In defiance of physics

To my Ex, the astrophysicist

Once the poet wondered aloud, why don’t the stars fall on us? And the physicist rolled his eyes then released a downpour of facts, figures and theorems

which penetrated the poet’s brain no more than water seeps into a duck’s feathers. It was Magic, how the stars hung so swimmingly from the sky, hooked by Mystery.

One night, in a flash as a star fell, the poet saw the Magic, the Mystery the Marvel of science and the physicist shared this: no, the stars don’t rain on Earth

but diamonds rain on Saturn.

©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2020

This is a true story, poem already shared with my great friend, my Ex. It did indeed take a falling star, the failing of our marriage, for my heart to open to the beautiful poem called the universe.

As I grieved the loss of our marriage, I’d take walks at night — round and round and round the gated complex where I lived — and gaze up at the sky. I’d find myself texting questions to my soon-to-be Ex.

Often the replies were too theoretical for my brain to grasp but one, it rains diamonds on Saturn (and Uranus), caught me. I knew I’d write a poem about it one day.

Thanks to J.D. Harms at Scrittura, ‘ one day’ is today. The prompt “defy physics” was just too perfect to resist!

If you’d like to read about the physics behind raining diamonds, here’s the link for you. My Ex interviewed by the BBC. (Yes, I’m proud of him.)

If you’d like an even more detailed treatise (like a book chapter on the diamonds), simply email me at [email protected], and I’ll send it your way.

Thank you, dearest readers, for accompanying me on my journey through my heart and the universe.