For Maria and Emma, Daughters of Four Physicists

What trouble your folks have gotten in.

They've given you, not Original Sin,

But the genes for being very smart

And wanting to take things apart

To see how they were put together.

Cabinets, drawers, boxes, leather

Sofa cushions - each might hold

Amazing secrets. When you're old-

Er there'll be watches and computer accounts

To hack into. Does china bounce?

Will vacuum cleaners run in reverse?

It's a fascinating universe.

I wonder how your houses will withstand

Two decades' need to understand.

Grow up to be corporate raiders,

Tobacco lawyers, right-wing crusaders -

But if you must follow your parent's tradition,

Wait til I retire - the competition

Is fierce enough as is. Perhaps

The standard model will collapse

By then, the LHC may be done -

I think you're in for lots of fun.