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When the entire Universe was smaller than a single atom
And the Laws of Nature had not yet been fully formed;
During the earliest moments of that inconceivable cosmic catastrophe
Which scientists calmly call the Big Bang;
While fundamental physical forces fought among themselves
Like armies warring for supremacy:
Then it was the Magnetic Monopole was created.

Born at the junction of three disparate regions,
Where the new-formed physical fields were aligned by chance
Along divergent and incompatible vectors,
The Monopole was as confused as a child finding itself
On the disputed border of three nations
Speaking different languages, obeying different laws-
Sharing aspects of all but not belonging to any.

It watched with curiosity the distant appearance
Of splashes of light tracing out walls and filaments around
Vast dark oceans of almost empty space.
Occasionally a line of magnetic force would draw the Monopole
Into one of these glowing places and it found itself
Wandering through a galactic island of billions of stars,
Only to emerge aeons later without finding its home.

From the multitudes of particles teeming around it
The Monopole was isolated, stateless, rejected, unique.
For the next fourteen thousand million years
It wandered across the changing face of the universe
Searching desperately, constantly seeking a home
And forever failing to find one.

Two hundred million years ago the Monopole
Followed a magnetic line of force into yet another galaxy
The plate-shaped spiral-armed structure called the Milky Way,
And began to wind its way through the mass of gas, dust, stars and planets
Spread out around it in a disc. It followed the magnetic field
Along a spiral arm and passed very close to
A middle-aged main-sequence star, the Sun,
Surrounded by a small array of planets.

And so it was that on the morning of Wednesday
Fourth of April 2012 the Magnetic Monopole
Approached the blue surface of a tiny, insignificant planet, the Earth.
Here it found a magnetic field strong enough to bring it to rest.
The Magnetic Monopole was finally approaching
The home it had been seeking since time began.