January 2024
Bio Note: A retired magazine editor, I live in Arlington, Virginia, with my husband and cat. The antique desk where I wrote overlooks telephone wires and maple trees. My poems have appeared widely and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. My publications include All Alive Together, Something Like a Life, Muslim Wife, Personal Astronomy, When You Escape, and The Unknowable Mystery of Other People.
Dead Sea Determinism
I was destined to do it – to spend more than I can afford on creams and potions that promise to make me look young. Made with salt and minerals from the Dead Sea they were prettily packaged and persuasively pushed by a charming young man who won me over with his clever patter. I had no choice – I had to give him my credit card. Science says everything is determined – no free will no responsibility no praise or blame. It’s called causal determinism. What we do depends on what we’ve done – like going to the mall in the first place. You can see it in history, I guess – one war causes the next one. But I don’t like to think what this stern idea means for the world in these dire and tragic times.
Between Neurons
The human brain has a dizzying array of mystery cells – Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 10/12/23 So many, many cells – who knows what they’re all for? For thinking and speaking, yes, and all the other stuff we do. Apes have the same types of cells, but we have mystery cells too between neurons. It’s all about connection, about communication. The cells are talking to each other. One complex conversation leads to philosophy. Another produces art. And one makes science or symphonies. Keep talking, cells, keep talking.
I Dream of Equations
Gravitational Waves Create a Constant ‘Hum’ Across the Universe – The Smithsonian, 6/29/23 Listen, the universe is humming. Last audible rumble of the Big Bang perhaps? Or the musical contribution of angels who’ve forgotten the words? Or, more likely, as scientists suspect, what happens when supermassive black holes spiral together to merge. Whatever. I want to hear the hum, gauge the frequency, the tone and pitch. I watch the sky in ignorance, deaf to the lapping of gravitational waves, blind to any merger of black holes. Physics, astronomy, and all the rest – beyond my grasp, but how alluring. I dream of equations chalked smartly on a classroom board – what secrets they must hold, what treasures of the intellect they suggest. Tonight I watch for shooting stars, treasuring their beauty even if I’ll never understand the force behind them.
©2024 Sally Zakariya
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