the echo in this hotel atrium
echo in this atrium
echo in this hotel atrium is pronounced
a fountain near me fountains
gurgling its fontane gurgling
fontane song
a woman laughs
her laughter echoes
her perfume i can smell
it smells fruity
fruity woman in the atrium
i am eating an apple
an apple seed is in my mouth and i would like to spit it out
i pull it out instead
politely
discreetly
using thumb and middle finger
according to certain principles of design
what’s left of the apple is on the table in front of me
turning brown as apples do
i pick it up
i take a bite
the sound of my biting
snapping
crunching
echoes
i take another bite
a door chime chimes
chimes nearby and echoes
the woman still smells like fruit
she laughs again
a vacuum cleaner vacuums clean a hall around the corner from the fountain
fontane gurgling
the apple tastes good
a heavy object clatters in the
heavy object clatters in the hall
echoing echoes echo
(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
fog burning off now, catching rays
fog juices trickle down gutters to sewer grates
fog ashes eddy on sun giggles
(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
“The glory of mathematics is that we do not have to say what we are talking about. The glory is that the laws, the arguments, and the logic are independent of what ‘it’ is. If we have any other set of objects that obey the same system of axioms as Euclid’s geometry, then if we make new definitions and follow them out with correct logic, all the consequences will be correct, and it makes no difference what the subject was. In nature, however, when we draw a line or establish a line by using a light beam and a theodolite, as we do in surveying, are we measuring a line in the sense of Euclid? No, we are making an approximation; the cross hair has some width, but a geometrical line has no width, and so, whether Euclidean geometry can be used for surveying or not is a physical question, not a mathematical question. However, from an experimental standpoint, not a mathematical standpoint, we need to know whether the laws of Euclid apply to the kind of geometry that we use in measuring land; so we make a hypothesis that it does, and it works pretty well; but it is not precise, because our surveying lines are not really geometrical lines. Whether or not those lines of Euclid, which are really abstract, apply to the lines of experience is a question for experience; it is not a question that can be answered by sheer reason.” – Richard P. Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. I (emphasis in original)