“You Might Think This Is What Happens” by Amy Schrader

November 3, 2015Posted by

Amy Schrader

YOU MIGHT THINK THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS

—Schrödinger’s cat walks into a bar.
And doesn’t.

You’re talking probabilities & how
the act of observation changes
us. As we argue, the cat meows
to be let out. It’s like a message

from the ether: he loves me, he loves me
not. Rather: I love you means I hate you
but at the very least we can agree
it’s both at the same time. A pas de deux

particular to coexistence. Wave
hello. I mean goodbye. We roll the dice
each time we see each other. Let’s behave
in stranger ways. Pick your poison, break the ice

with jokes we think are pertinent.
A marriage? Indeterminate.

—from Rattle #49, Fall 2015
Tribute to Scientists

[download audio]

__________

Amy Schrader: “I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992 with a degree in molecular and cell biology (emphasis in biochemistry). While my career path went one way (barista, accountant) and my vocational path went another (MA in English literature, MFA in poetry), I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the laboratory, the periodic chart of elements, chemical reactions, and other scientific tropes that can serve as astonishing metaphors. One area of scientific inquiry in particular has a powerful and mysterious hold on my imagination: quantum mechanics. More specifically, I am obsessed with the paradoxical thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger about a cat locked in a box with a photon and a gun. The thought experiment illustrates how reality is created solely through the act of observation, which to me sounds very much like poetry.”

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