It is difficult to describe what we felt
after we paid the admission,
entered the aluminum dome,
and stood there with our mouths open
before the machine itself,
what we had only read about in the papers.
Huge and glistening it was
but bolted down and giving nothing away.
What did it mean?
we all openly wondered,
and did another machine exist somewhere else—
an even mightier one—
that was designed to be its exact opposite?
These were not new questions,
but we asked them earnestly and repeatedly.
Later, when we were home again—
a family of six having tea—
we raised these questions once more,
knowing that this made us part
of a great historical discussion
that included science
as well as literature and the weather