Visit to the Community College
By Lynn D. Gilbert
July 15, 2024
July 15, 2024
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for a free two-hour course in ‘everyday
physics.’ I write down ‘Distance is not the same as displacement.’ As the teacher explains, I translate: Distance is the route I drove here; displacement is as the crow flies. There’s more: ‘Weight’s not the same as mass; speed’s not the same as velocity.’ Worst, ‘Nobody knows what energy is.’ Disheartened, I conclude physics is too airy-fairy for me. I close my eyes and see that crow, sun bouncing off iridescent black as it flies. I hear the piercing rasp of its cry from a branch where it’s landed. |
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Lynn D. Gilbert's poems have appeared in Arboreal, Blue Unicorn, Consequence, Light, Mezzo Cammin, Sheepshead Review, Southwestern American Literature, and elsewhere. Her poetry volume has been a finalist in the Gerald Cable and Off the Grid Press book contests. A founding editor of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, she lives in a suburb of Austin and reads poetry submissions for Third Wednesday journal.
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Author’s Note:
These two poems both illustrate how excluded I feel from understanding physics and how much I wish I were not. Being able to use my imagination in other contexts is some consolation. I'm also very pleased that STEAM subjects are much more open today--both socially and psychologically--to girls/women than when I was young. My daughter is a professor of applied mathematics at Yale and collaborates with colleagues in electrical engineering, computer science, statistics, even information science.