Variations: Alice Had Become A Valence Electron! Poem by Margaret Alice

Then Alice came upon Niels Bohr, sitting
on a mushroom drawing atomic structures
for quantum cells: Who are you and what
do you do, asked Alice; I’m Niels Bohr and
I create electron tracks – would you like
to see an atom? – Yes, Alice eagerly replied,
and whoosh! – she swooped through the
air, suddenly moving around a nucleus
where other electrons were chasing each
other along elliptic tracks – Alice had joined
the electronic community of a sodium
atom – but she felt very lonely as she
had no playmate, she had become – a
valency electron! – when she complained;
Niels Bohr said: Alice, appreciate solitude
to contemplate your soul in peace; but
just then Alice jumped into the orbit of
a chlorine atom and a happy electron
of opposite spin welcomed her: Delighted
to meet you – come glide along! – Alice
was much happier in the chlorine atom
than she was in sodium as a
valency electron…

George Gamow “Mr Tompkins in Paperback”