Uncertainty of Sadness
Who would need records if the memory were as bound
as Boolean values– True or False / 0 or 1? You need a death–
certificate to remind you of grandfather who died
years ago, and you want to use this as a theme
to write a poem for him, but you give up
after a few attempts. You can't remember it clearly–
fine, you were sad but how sad? Can you measure
sadness? 0 for delight, and 1 for depression?
Most likely, it lies somewhere in between.
Somewhere around 0.66? There is a fundamental
limit to the precision of the value. Sadness
is an obscure gray-skinned animal with millions
of possible gradations– unnamed shades, unidentified
traits, and unpredictable. Days later, with a change
in conjugate variables of period & proximity,
it seems impossible to predict the extent of sadness.
All you remember is he died. Certainly, he died.
Debasis Tripathy works for an IT Company in Bangalore. He also writes– poems and short fiction. His recent work has been featured/forthcoming in Mad Swirl, Eunoia Review, Squawk Back, Collidescope, Turnpike, Adelaide Magazine, Kitaab, Punch Magazine & elsewhere. Occasionally, he tweets at @d_basis.
Previous: James H Duncan • Issue 14 • Next: Bear Weaver
The Mantle 