Why I Am Not a Poet, Pt 2

There is a sticky note on my monitor
to remind me of Ohm's Law:

Voltage Equals Current Times Resistance (E = IR)
Current Equals Voltage Over Resistance (I = E/R)
Resistance Equals Voltage Over Current (R = E/I)

There is a sticky note to my left, stuck on the wall.
It reads: "The pain of changing paradigms"

Behind me, is a bookshelf, inadequate
to the volume of books in my apartment.

And to my right, a MIDI keyboard
and a tangle of wires.

Why I Am Not A Poet

 

Artification Pt. 7

I was back at the museum
admiring the Flying V guitar
crafted by that crafty Archimedes.^[1]
Weathered by millennia but somehow pristine
within its glass case, under its spotlight.

I won't be coy: it reminded me of you,
reader. I don't mean a "you", pluralrhetorically.
I mean the you, herenow reading.

[1] The story goes that Archimedes was playing this guitar when he was killed in the siege of Syracuse. Roman soldiers looted his belongings, including the guitar, which was believed lost until it was recovered in an archaeological dig near Lyon.

While some scholars dispute the guitar's authenticity, most agree that it is authentic. This is based on a careful analysis of the materials used and the design of the pickups, which are consistent with what is known about Ancient Greek electric guitars. If this piece is a hoax, then it is an expertly-made one.

AMBROTYPE

Image-making once meant preservation.
It took time to fix time.
To hold still and gather light
on a plate of wet glass.

Distilled to binary,
emptiness plus form
unite as keepsake.

And now, light only slips out
from under our fingers.