Your bond energy crackles

From across the lab

You approach me

With your protective eyewear

As an electron transfer would.

Would you like to

Balance my equation?

My activation energy is rising

We make our way toward

The restricted area

Authorized personnel only

You examine my mass

Your proton size increases

Giving it a positive charge

Your atomic number does the same

Forming an ionic bond

With our opposite charges

Your metal qualities

Mix with my nonmetal

Becoming one

Our molecules join

Translate, rotate, vibrate

As a single unit

You fill my valence electron shell

I can’t take anymore

I am full

We are one element

Not to be broken down

Into simpler substances

An equation

What we will be

Forever changed by our bond

As acid touches litmus paper

Never returning to our normal state.

Oxidation-reduction has taken its toll

Electrons have been transferred