What Kept Its Shape

Two metres of concrete. A van parked past it. Between them: lead bricks, stacked for the test.

The laser struck gas, then lead; electrons rode a wave and smashed. A filter of plastic and paraffin cut the noise. The wall took the rest.

What registered was not the wall. The wall had already let go. What registered was the denser pile— a grainy blank the size of bricks, lead-shaped, still there in the shape of its refusal.

Ninety percent the same particle. Low resolution. Enough. The outline held after the lighter thing had failed.