Ann Hudson's Glow investigates the mystery of radium the vision of Marie Curie who discovered it through labor and sheer will; its rise to fame as a health craze; the critically important work it did for the medical field; and its widespread use in luminescent paint which made watches glow in the dark. But Glow is also an investigation into what makes us tick, our curiosities, ambition, and our sense of purposeful work. These poems explore how one luminous substance-the hunt for it, the search for its secrets and powers-can be understood as a life force of its own, even as it has the power to whittle that life force to nothing. These poems show radium as destructive as it is illuminating.
Table of Contents
Afterglow
Paradise
Electric Fairy
Marie Curie Addresses Pierre in her Mind While She Inspects the Stove In the Vestibule
Why Grow Old?
Petites Curies
Work (1922)
Work (1923)
Work (1934)
Little Sister
Nothing Sacred
Half-Life
Madame Curie
Mercurochrome
Celery
Why Tooth Fairies Luminesce
What's Your Favorite Superpower?
Radium Again Found in Allegheny River and Tributaries
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