Relational Architectures
This series of poems traces the invisible architectures that bind us: neural networks, gravitational pulls, topologies of emotion, and cosmic patterns of light. At the intersection of physics, biology, and memory, Relational Architectures asks what it means to be a body in motion-shaped by ancestral entanglements, molecular reverberations, and electric desire.
Each piece turns to the language of science not as explanation, but as metaphor and map—a way of articulating the nonlinear, recursive, and often ineffable structures of relation. From the arborization of neurites to the cascading waves of neurotransmitters, from the double refraction of minerals to the polarizations of nebulae, the poems move between the microscopic and the astronomical, folding them together as one shared geometry.
Memories of Futures Selves (Quantum Entanglements)
This poem explores quantum entanglement as a metaphor for ancestry, memory, and relational trauma. Drawing on concepts from topological quantum computing, it imagines particles (non-abelian anyons) braiding through time, storing stories across generations. The use of quantum gates like CNOT, Pauli-Z, Hadamard mark moments of entanglement, reversal, and eventual re-opening. Non-commutativity, a property of quantum logic where order affects outcome, becomes a way to describe nonlinear inheritance and emotional disruption. Decoherence represents the collapse of multiplicity under external pressure, while the final invocation of the Hadamard gate signals a refusal to collapse into singularity.
Down the yellow brick road
they went, grounded.
Non-abelian anyons and friends
particles crisscrossing paths,
storing something deep within:
our ancestors’ stories, their lives,
hopscotching through time in us.
They came
excited,
creating something
we can’t uncross:
these ligaments, tightly bound.
CNOT-wounded.
Unable to exhume, to excavate our own skin,
we begin to search for troves of treasure,
answers within
a biopsy of the self.
But with:
a × b = c
b × b = a
c × c = b
we mark the spot.
To know where we once bled,
where the body was ripped apart,
soldered and fused back together
a topography
of the body’s topology.
Lineages
of line leaders gone astray.
Pauli-Z phase flips,
a reverse order of operations,
the recordance of a closed-loop circuit.
Memories of
non-compliance
creating non-commutativity
in this present plane.
Observations that we are unique,
without any local interference.
Not by ourselves,
but with our self
and selves past.
We must hold our bodies tightly
as they twist, turn, and squirm
toward decoherence.
And from there,
we begin again
guided, able,
drawn toward futures of equal probability.
Superpositions:
0 and 1.
The gate of Hadamard
held open for us.
Sugarplum Forest(Neural Networks)
This poem uses the chemistry of neurotransmission as a metaphor for emotional intensity and relational circuitry. Molecules like dopamine and serotonin become agents of binding and memory, their selective affinities mirroring the way desire and rage take hold. The poem references signal transduction and excitation pathways as "railways" of emotion, mapping personal history onto biochemical infrastructure..
My roots
fold in on themselves like Russian dolls—
nested, still,
until they flower
and fruit.
Suddenly: a shoot.
Branches sprout and spread,
twisting around one another
arborization.
Fields of neurites rise,
repeating through space,
lengths and diameters scaling like kudzu,
winding, binding,
tangling into jungle.
We cloud out everyone around us.
Between light and shadow,
something leaps
a flicker of electricity.
Our fears, our differences
transmit through current:
from neuron to neuron,
a spark becomes a flood,
a neuronal cascade
of hate.
Stereo Love (Neurotransmitters)
This poem uses the chemistry of neurotransmission as a metaphor for emotional intensity and relational circuitry. Molecules like dopamine and serotonin become agents of binding and memory, their selective affinities mirroring the way desire and rage take hold.
Stereo hate, stereo love
on the loudspeaker
an oscular bind.
Don’t excuse yourself
for getting wrapped up
in this molecular surface tension.
Six-membered benzene rings:
dopamine, serotonin
exhibiting selective binding
that remembers
how rage can be blinding,
how energy is contagious.
Sites of signal transduction.
Signal transmission.
Railways of excitation,
extending the tracks
of our emotional journeys.
Replay.
The desire to dig heels deep
desire paths past
becoming desired futures,
once rooted in suffering.
The removal of roots
creates clearings,
upending the cementation
of emotion
once thought to be concrete.
Symphonic Relations (The Theremin)
This poem captures the subtle choreography of relational influence. The speaker’s movements are controlled at a distance, like voltage modulated through capacitance. The poem’s physical references highlight how the body becomes a site of sonic and emotional transduction. The formula f = 1/2πRC describes the frequency of oscillation in an RC circuit, linking the speaker’s cry to electrical theory.
I’m guided like a marionette,
jumping, dancing at your whim.
My motion stays limber
nominally limbic as you
pull my nimble ligaments through air.
I’m an aerial locomotive.
The ramifications of planar space:
as we move closer,
I become clouded
from myself.
Capacitance rises
the potential for change in my body.
You point at my mouth
and I shriek.
Shrouding my lips
as they cry out and up,
I hit the high notes:
f = 1 / 2πRC
Voice undulating in waves,
until I reach 180°
stabilized by ground.
And when you move away—
I stop.
I sit up at 90°,
and breathe deep.
This is a symphony
we can only create
together.
Bounce Back (Cordierite)
This poem draws from the optical properties of the mineral Cordierite( 2MgO · 2Al₂O₃ · 5SiO₂ ) known for its double refraction and pleochroism, and its ability to shift colors based on angle. The transition from "ordinary" to "extraordinary" waves, mapped to specific angles (57.43° and 62.92°), marks a shift in identity through crystallographic thresholds.
Polarized light hits me
Polaroids capture me.
Candid and cool
at 57.43°
I’m an ordinary wave,
pale blue.
Body centered,
body present
tightly wrapped
in an orthogonal spiderweb
of your making.
2MgO · 2Al₂O₃ · 5SiO₂
But then
something shifts.
The silk breaks.
I’m no longer on your side.
I oppose.
I shine.
At 62.92°
I become peculiar.
Perpendicular.
Extraordinary.
A new wave
comes over me—
and I float.
I’m a deep violet.
Reflections are of our making.
Refractions—
fractions
of what we observe.
n₁ sin(θ₁) = n₂ sin(θ₂)
A Cosmic Twist (Reflection Nebulae)
This final poem zooms outward, situating the self in a cosmic register. It draws from the physics of reflection nebulae, clouds of dust that scatter starlight to produce visible glow. Concepts like circular polarization and directional scattering frame memory and emotion as diffused light events. The line E(t) = E₀(cos(ωt) x̂ + sin(ωt) ŷ) represents an electric field vector in circular polarization, reinforcing the cyclical, recursive structure of identity.
Multiple scatters of light
stretch like taffy
pulled candy,
a tapestry of memory in the night.
The picture is grainy.
Directional shifts,
roundabout truths,
creating:
Circular Polarization
E(t) = E₀(cos(ωt) x̂ + sin(ωt) ŷ)
Vespers flicker in vignettes,
moving on a carousel
a merry-go-round
of light and shadow,
of life.
Flickering destiny hardens
into rocky manifestations.
Boulders of dust and gas
appear like psalms before us
to be spoken,
to be placed,
to be climbed over and through,
into a higher energy state.
But when we arrive
we release.
Dropping our flag
and our photon,
we relax,
shine
with hues of red.
Interstellar dust finally illuminated
the cosmic storm calms.
Light waves soften.
The blue brightens.
Threads once tangled
unwind,
then weave back together
like tape.
Our drum begins to beat and spin.
We begin to let go.
Committed now
to the self and its ongoing projection,
our motion picture
begins
to play.