So What

So What by Kim Addonizio

Guess what. If love is only chemistry--
phenylethylamine, that molecule
that dizzies up the brain's back room, smoky
with hot bebop, it won't be long until
a single worker's mopping up the scuffed
and littered floor, whistling tunelessly,
each endorphin cooling like a snuffed
glass candle, the air stale with memory.
So what, you say; outside, a shadow lifts
a trumpet from its case, lifts it like an ingot
and scatters a few virtuosic riffs
towards the locked-down stores. You've quit
believing that there's more, but you're still stirred
enough to stop, and wait, listening hard.