The Pages Are Still Warm (Marie Curie)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
You worked in a shed
with no heat.
You wrote in your journal
that your fingers
got so cold
you could not hold
the stirring rods
some afternoons.

You ground tons
of a black mineral
from Bohemia
with your hands
to pull out of it
a spoonful
of a salt
that gave off
its own light
in a dark room
without needing
anyone
to light it.

[Verse 2]
You called it
*fairy lights*.
You kept a vial
in the drawer
of your desk
because you liked
to open the drawer
at night
and see it glowing
the way some women
keep photographs
of children
they miss.

[Chorus]
And I love you
for the drawer
at the end of a long day.
And I love you
for the shed
and the cold fingers
and the refusal
to stop.
And I love you
for the hands
that would not let go
of the thing
that was killing them.

[Verse 3]
France wanted to call you
an angel.
France had a word for that
and would have used it.
You made them
call you
a physicist
because physicist
was the more accurate
word.

[Outro]
Your notebooks
are still warm.
Not the radium —
the radium
only makes them dangerous.
The warmth
is a woman
who loved the glow
in her drawer
the way some women love
the glow
coming from
a child's bedroom
after bedtime.

You died of it.
You would
do it
again.

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