dichotomizing.

today I am expelling protons
not just expelling, but
spitting protons
I'm shooting them off my carboxyl groups--no--
I'm shooting them off of my oxygens
I ionize into the air.
fading--I'm no longer there.
But all of my virulent exhalations
the hydrogens, pairless, that dart in my wake--
an acid, an acid
today I'm an acid
perchloric and angry
a sour tart tang
a taste in the air
dissociates quickly
and burns up the sidewalk with protons
protons
I'm spitting protons
I'm shooting them off of my oxygens
Bronsted and Lowry say I am an acid
in the wake of the protons
electrons suck in
and I have been negative all since the morning
but I am not bitter--
I'm not a base,
I'm an acid
acid
a perchloric acid
to fizzle out slowly and hang in the air
and only the hydrogen says I was there.