The Earth Is Not Flat

Problems of Description in the Language of Discovery

77 Problems of Description in the Language of Discovery With apologies to Ken Golden, mathematician First, there’s what you can do with a ruler Only as precise as your hand that lays it Alongside inclusions, ice crystals melting, surprisingly Similar in the abstract, whatever Their particular uniquenesses. When waves Move the ship, your hand slips too. There’s What you can do in snow, what In fire. What you can say about Any of it in numbers: say 5, operating Its own set of rules, magicked Feathers fluttering from your sleeve. The change, Sudden, where ice becomes not Quite ice. Permeable. Excuse me: The mathematician, not the poet, deployed the word Magic, pulling the number 5 from which hat exactly? Unlike the poet, he’s studied Theories of percolation for decades, head Bent between lamplight and numbers, considering 78 How everything gives way, at What moment. Crunching the numbers Again, knuckling them under. You might say he invents Nothing, just observes, creates only Models of what he’s seen, if you haven’t seen him Flick his wrist. Tada! A moment ago You stood on solid ground. Now Look down and see water rising Right over your boots. Ice Underfoot seemed just that firm Until you looked across to the horizon, Bedazzled, and saw it heave. Measurable Undulation. Keep watching the hand turning You to distraction. What With all we know about Walking on water, why do we believe Our eyes? In solid ground? -5°C, say. A brine 79 Fraction of 5%. If numbers appear from thin air, golden, Anything gives way, ice or earth. I’m not here To charm or conjure. I’m just watching, As if, knowing what the numbers come to, I might be able to tell you how they mean. ...