The Quantum Math of Conversion Therapy
According to the many worlds hypothesis,
the first emerging dandelion of spring
is all the dandelions of spring,
is every living thing finding a crack
in all the packed pavement in all the universes.
Our big brains can’t conceive of more than one reality,
but all things are real in the multi-verse—Shakespeare
performing the Tempest on Mars, a quinceañera
on the nearest star, a queer kid made straight
by a “conversion” therapist. The math?
Take an infinitely small number, multiply it
by my young friend Petey wearing a lacy blue dress
when she was four, all of this divided by the exponent
of the quack science of fear and bigotry
wreak on the mind of a child. It’s Wednesday noon
and the test alert sirens warn: Beware a universe
where anyone claims they know another’s truth.
By the time the sirens cease, at 12:07 to be precise,
dozens more dandelions bloom in our drive.
This is the most beautiful time: before
the Amazon truck crushes every one. The good news:
more blooms will emerge before the next delivery.
And in a parallel universe, Petey will get the hormone
blockers she needs. The bad news, this is the one reality
where she won’t, where now, a counselor tells her she must
be a boy and, and when she lies crying all night in her bed,
her parents hide all the sharp toys.
Dick Westheimer lives in rural southwest Ohio with his wife and writing companion, Debbie. He is winner of the 2023 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, the 2026 Third Wednesday Poetry Prize, the 2026 Poets in Defense of Science Poetry Prize, the 2026 Poetry Box Chapbook Prize, and a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist. His poems have appeared in ONLY POEMS, Whale Road Review, Rattle, and One Art. He hosts the monthly Rattle Prompt Lines Community Reading and appears regularly on The Poetry Space podcast. Sales of his chapbook, A Sword in Both Hands, Poems Responding to Russia’s War on Ukraine, published by SheilaNaGig, raised over $2,000 for Ukraine Trust Chain.
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