Twist

The spaghetti mystery
Baffled the brilliant brain
Of physicist Richard Feynman,
Who died unable to explain
Why a stressed strand snaps
In multiple locations,
Not conveniently in half.

My grandmother counted
The strands of spaghetti
To cook half a box;
She was neurotic like that,
Didn’t trust guesstimates.
She knew to do the twist,
Though she never took physics,
To keep the stress centered,
And avoid getting pasta bits
All over the stovetop.

Now they have an equation
To describe the stress breaks
Of spaghetti strands —
Physicists rejoice!
It’s not just about the pasta,
You understand.
Lots of things have multiple
Stress points and could snap
Unpredictably
When put under pressure,
Especially if there’s a pot
Of boiling water nearby.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Reprinted from Monochrome for dVerse Poets’ prompt on grandmothers. I could write a lot more about this particular granny, but I think the spaghetti strand counting is enough, for now.