Strange by Steven Paul Lansky
Strange, but true: Water and ice freeze at the same temperature. And, steam and water boil at the same temperature. Technically this is not correct, as ice will melt faster in hotter water, but it is actually at the same temperature as it is melting, so it is true. Steam can reach a higher temperature than water, and as it vaporizes may continue to rise in temperature until it all evaporates. In this instance it will no longer be water or vapor, just evaporature. Evaporature is largely misunderstood, as is the quality of coolth. Most scientists claim that cold is the absence of heat, but in all other cases it is the presence of coolth. This was discovered above the Tropic of Cancer. Why this is relevant is unknown. The coolth factor regards all temperature decisions equally. Therefore nothing much should be made of ice, water, steam, and evaporature, as all these are non-quantum applications of statistical mechanics. When mechanics get into quantum data, they get vague, and are able to displace logic with strange observations, diagrams, and X-rated explanations. Often they try to persuade those in the arts that these scientific ideas are not friendly and suggest the foreboding nature of science.
When discussing coolth, heat, and science it is important not to lose one’s cool. One’s cool is not the same as coolth. Coolth is by a factor of ninety-nine. Someone calls ninety-nine percent coolth as coolth as ever, but that miserly scientist who can supplant the extra one percent of coolth is hailed as being problematic for the rest of those who collect coolth. What is the big deal there?
Light particles and waves do not affect the course to steer or the tidal tables for yachtsmen in the 21st century. Abstract physics is not intended to deflate or instigate any ego driving. Note that driving in the tropics is not always related to ego. Often one must stay on the left side of the road. This is not related to coolth either. When the sun shines, one must take the good with the ba.
Somehow that word ended without its final all consuming “d.” When you are really bad you may be good. This also has nothing to do with coolth. At the arctic sea, there is much coolth. Also in Antarctica. This has nothing to do with science. It just is. When you ask someone in the tropics what to expect from the weather, the reply, most astutely is, “This is it.”
For now we will agree that gullible people cannot be led into a discussion of quantum or statistical mechanics without asking for a brain drain. This is especially necessary for those of us over forty. We have gradually accepted that we can only start where we start and end up where we end up. Keep in mind there are many points where we all meet.
Steven Paul Lansky graduated from Miami University with a MA in 2001 and received a MFA from the University of Tampa in 2015. He is the recipient of two Ohio Arts Council grants. His poetry includes Main St. (2002) and Eleven Word Title for Confessional Political Poetry Originally Composed for Radio (2009), two chapbooks published by Seaweed Sideshow Circus. His audionovel Jack Acid (2004) is available (2012) as a digital download. His novel: the citizen, has excerpts published in The Brooklyn Rail (2005), ArtSpike, CityBeat (online), Streetvibes and Article 25. For his animated videos: Bratwurst (with Leigh Waltz), Exit Strategy, Harvest, and The Broken Finger Episode A-8 or the Cigarette Break see: lanskysp in YouTube. For more see: Cosmonauts Avenue, Whole Terrain, New Flash Fiction Review, Black Clock 20, and St. Petersburg Review Issue 8.