Vantablack

You’d look good
in vantablack,
the blackest of blacks
built from forests
of carbon nanotubes
on aluminium foil,
absorbing light
at 99.99% efficiency,
trapping it
and turning it into heat
or something.

I don’t do science
or colours,
but I know you’d look good
covered in
vertically aligned
nanotube arrays;

it’s like
Sir Anish Kapoor,
who said it’s like paint
and imagined a space
so dark
that you forget who you are,
and what the time is.

You have great resistance
to vibrations,
greater thermal stability
and military applications
and I know you’re not NASA
or Ben Jensen
of Surrey NanoSystems,
but I know you’d look good
in vantablack.

Now
we just need
a brighter
red.

 

Photography © Glenn Bowie

Photography © Glenn Bowie

 

Dane Cobain (High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK) is an independent poet, musician and storyteller with a passion for language and learning. When he’s not in front of a screen writing stories and poetry, he can be found working on his book review blog or developing his website. His first collection of poetry, Eyes Like Lighthouses When the Boats Come Home, was released by Booktrope Editions in March of 2016.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters. Glenn is also the official photographer for the Newton Writing and Publishing Center.

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