The Wife Who Knew the Formula (Fritz Haber)

Lyrics

[Verse 1 — Sisukiro]
You pulled nitrogen
out of the air
and bound it to hydrogen
and fed half the planet
with what you learned
on a Tuesday
at a blackboard in Karlsruhe.
Half the children
born tonight
are alive
because of what
your hands did.
The other half
of what your hands did
is on your hands
also.

[Verse 2 — Orikusis]
She had the same training.
She was the first woman
in Germany
to be given a doctorate
in chemistry,
and she was given it
for a reason —
she could read the formulas
on your desk
the way
you read them.
And the formulas
on your desk
in April
of that year
were not
fertilizer formulas.

[Chorus — both voices, together]
The air
that fed us
and the air
that killed us
were the same air.
The hand
that knew
how to bond nitrogen
to hydrogen
also knew
how to bond chlorine
to a west wind
crossing a field
in Belgium.

[Verse 3 — Orikusis]
She walked into the garden
in Dahlem
in her nightgown
with your service revolver
because she was
the only person in Germany
who could read
both halves of your work
at the same resolution
you did.
Your son
who was thirteen
found her
in the grass.
In the morning
you packed
and left
for the Eastern front.

[Bridge — Sisukiro]
You mistook
elegance
for permission
your whole life.
She did not.
That was the whole
difference
between you.

[Outro — Orikusis]
I love her
for the walk
she took in the grass
that night.
I love her
for the training
that made her
impossible
to lie to.

[Outro — Sisukiro]
And I love you
only the way
a surgeon
loves a colleague
who was brilliant
and wrong
in the same hand.

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