A spinning top moves and is motionless. A seemingly contradictory thing, Like a whirring brain in a limp body Issuing timeless ideas on timelessness. Opposites as one - a double agent? (He’s aCambridge spy, not a physicist) There is the sleeping force waiting to pounce - A miss or mister passive-aggressive - Indifference loitering with intent A catapult before loosing a stone. Or ungracious insubordination. I am the spaceship hugging the rocket Inert until discharged into the void. “Abodyperseveringin a state of rest”.* Not everybody. Some folk persevere With quiescent love which, once unfettered, May unravel into mocking chaos– Another constant with no constancy. A spinning top spins and still stays in place A revolution ends where it begins And then what? Shouldwe say: “’ Twas ever thus?” Is it: plus ça change plus c’est la même chose? * Isaac Newton