The Ballad of Mileva Einstein by Laura Eppinger

​The Ballad of Mileva Einstein

It’s known since the days of Czar Lazarus:
A household hosts only one genius 

We had a daughter, Mileva Marić
Reared in an empire, Austro-Hungary
 
We loved her so much that we let her leave
To learn Physics at Zurich University
 
               It was the dawn of the Twentieth Century
               A woman in Science was rare indeed
 
She loved a peer, neither Christian nor Turk
And his a household name, until this day!
 
He called her “wild,” he named her “gypsy”
Under her spell of “Slavic intensity”
 
Our modern woman in mind and in love
Made love to this German, unmarried, unbound
 
              Something grew in Mileva then
              It wrecked her health, her genius spent
 
Adversity sends Serbs into the woods
Mileva, on retreat, wandered in deep
 
Nightmare pains tore up our hero inside:
Mileva gave birth to a rope of thorns.
 
She claimed it was a stillborn named Lieserl,
Not the death of twins: a career, ambitions
 
               Because now it was only right
               For Einstein to make her his wife
 
That was when her darkest problems began,
As she assumed the role of legal spouse
 
Keeping his house, raising Albert’s sons
Meant her life as a physicist was done.
 
He claimed Relativity, then had fun:
Wandered, cheated, and asked for a divorce
 
               Back in Serbian woods—a sprout
               Mileva’s soul, rosebush, peeked out
 
But in her mortal body, rot, decay,
Tubercular scars had their final say
 
Our hero died alone, confused and poor
In a Europe bereaved by World at War
 
Another woman’s body lowered back
into the ground, her labor forgotten.
 
               Something of Mileva didn’t die
               A woods-deep thorn bush still grows wild
 
Think twice before you praise that genius,
And be mindful of the wild roses.
 
Once Science is ready, Daughter Of Thorns
Will rise, return, and you will know her name!
 
It’s known since the days of Czar Lazarus:
A household hosts only one genius.

​

Bio: Laura Eppinger is a Pushcart-nominated writer of fiction, poetry and essay. She graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA in 2008 with a degree in Journalism, and she's been writing creatively ever since. She's the blog editor at Newfound Journal. Her publication list lives here:http://lolionthekaap.blogspot.com/p/creative-writing.html 

---