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When I said I weighed seventy kilos
I didn’t bother I weighed seventy times
The weight of an alloy cylinder
Made of platinum and iridium
Preserved near Paris at Sevres
To it the physicist so far clung
When he measured the weight of things
Like a life-boat on choppy seas
And alas today he is dismayed
The thing at Sevres can no more be guide
Everything is subject to change
Environment and wear and tear
Presided over by tyrant time
The cylinder sure has lost some weight
Despite careful handling strict
The need of the hour, nay minute
Is therefore to redefine weight
How can that be ever done
If we are to design matter alone
When change through time afflicts
Everything at every place?
An insurmountable conundrum indeed
Over-awed brains are losing sleep
“We have no problem” someone quipped
"With distance, say a meter, as it is
Measured against the speed of light
A natural constant without change
Unlike the sanctified alloy piece”
He didn’t bother the pace of light
Is reckoned against plaguing time
Whose unit the second derives
Sustenance from matter atomic
Of a particular type
In a particular state
In transition betwixt
Two levels hyperfine
Back to square one that is
A vicious circle indeed!
How could one ever rely
On matter alone to define
The basic units of science?
Caught we are in a flux
Trying to make sense
Lost like a ship in mid-seas
With no land or star in sight
Yet so sure are we
That we are right
To think that light escapes
The tyranny of time and change
Unaware of the Light that shines
Light and the constructs of space and time
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