Ballistics

Neil Philip Young

The mind quails when one’s unit of measure is the blink of an eye.
Consider:

The blink stands complete in three tenths of one second
In that elapsed time a standard 22 caliber centerfire cartridge will transit nine hundred feet.
With the blink as his unit, the physicist
stops
transfixed by the swiftness of ballistic shells and their seamless alacrity.

To those less occasioned to these matters, this transfixion arrives 

thunderously

While slower than the target/traversal time paced by our example bullet,
its impact is equally 

explosive

The mind seizes as the shells
bang
at the walls of conceptionings

But rudimentary mathematical functions address the matter 

unblinkingly

They tell us that a smooth steel cylinder 
will pierce one inch of most solids
        at a tad below eight hundredths of one second.
The entry/exit velocity through an apricot is accomplished while the eyelid is in full motion.
Your average woodchuck clocks in at well under a blink.

Most solids will yield to this metric
(The apricot and woodchuck being two exemplae).
Further: craniometrics tells us that

at its temple

a thin five millimeters of skull encase my brain
thin as life

The Science

This poem bears on mensuration theory (AKA the theory of measurement) and its practical relevance for today's serious problems with respect to violence in our country. Research regarding measurement theory is relatively new. It is, simply put, the study of measures, and their broad applications, in particular, those bearing relevance to statistical research suitability. In the present context, Ballistics explores the fragility of life, and how easily it can be extinguished.

The Poet

For several years Neil Philip Young has been experimenting with poems that conjoin scientific discourse with poetics. This is his first submission to Consilience which appears to be a suitable domain for this kind of poetry. His interests include Shakespeare, Vermeer, psychology (in which he holds a doctorate), and the philosophy of science. Of most relevance for the present social context of mass killings, is his study of measurement theory (mensuration) as it pertains to ballistics. Three other articles have been submitted to other journals concerning those other subjects. One, (‘The Constraining Influence of the Revolutionary on the Growth of the Field’) has been published, and two are under review. He lives in Northern California.

Next poem: Disciplines in Science by Nithish G.S.