SONNET DARE: Oxydation Numbers Represent The Charge After Ligands Are Removed

O Roman numerals! What can't you do?
Among your uses is denoting a
Coordination compound's charge in lieu
Of what its ligands add. Now ligands, they
Are atoms bound to metals which donate
Electrons, not from kindness but because
Its nicer to be neutral - not a state
To scoff at, for it's stable by all laws
Of matter that we know: To have a charge
Is to repel like, draw unlike and to make --
But I digress; this topic is too large
For fourteen lines of poetry to take
A proper survey of, at least for me.
Oxidation numbers, I flee from thee!