Rutherford's Gold 

 

Make me a tube, clear glass, 
the length of a man,
one end exposed to silver-white
blackening in the air
as its decay phosphoresces
in a neat pattern. Remove the air.
Insert a foil of thinnest gold. 
Observe.

Let others wallow in greed
and filthy yellow mud to turn 
entire lives into trinkets 
for the callow.  I need only
the smallest part of their 
blooded product to leave
the earth

and open the stars