Phenomenon
This was the scar the old nurse recognized . . .
You are Odysseus! (trans. R. Fitzgerald)
Trying to prove the purity of gold,
Archimedes learned how in the bath;
his knees and shanks and soapy water told
him more than months of beakers, books and math—
specific gravity!
..........The unintended
gurgles up on you, surfacing where
you’re wringing out a sponge, your search suspended
for the nonce. Did anyone prepare
old Eurykleia? No; the basin rang
a high bronze peal, curvetting to the floor
amazed, and up the startled water sprang.
The thing you want discovers you when you’re
washing a thigh, and the phenomenon’s
a shock—a sudden flood—a clang of bronze.
|