Cognition of Loss

Jessamyn Fairfield

We often spoke of the brain – how
its connections, seeded stochastically, evolve
into a web of memories, abilities, desires.
Who we are, mapped out
in the edges and vertices of a graph,
an electrical circuit that finds
harmonies in tone deafness.

Einstein’s brain was stolen, you know,
removed without consent after his death,
sliced up like a loaf of bread,
and sent to neurologists around the world.
Twenty years of secret study just to find
no Sylvian fissure, strong corpus callosum,
barest signposts in entropic fog.

I thought of that when I stood over your body,
cold, unembalmed, in the twenty minutes
allowed before cremation. Your brain,
its every path and biochemical mystery –
could nothing of you be preserved?
You were worth more than a million Einsteins
to me, and yet I watched as they wheeled you away.

The Science

How the structure of the brain shapes our thoughts, experiences, and fundamental humanity is an enduring scientific mystery. We know more than we did in 1955, when Albert Einstein passed away, but there are still many unknowns, and the interplay between biochemistry, electrical circuitry, and environment makes the brain challenging to understand with any single scientific discipline. Einstein’s brain was actually taken without consent, by pathologist Thomas Harvey, and the slices sent to scientists who might be able to provide insight into what made him such a brilliant scientist. Ironically, this process destroyed much of the structural information, making it impossible to re-examine the brain with the techniques we now possess. The exact structure of the brain is a map whose contours and meanings are still the focus of intense study, and it is difficult not to imagine that a loved one’s brain, even after their death, holds some essence or insight into their mind, the person they were.

The Poet

Jessamyn Fairfield is a scientist and writer based in Galway, Ireland whose poems have previously appeared in Crannóg, Kelp Journal, and Poetry Ireland Review. She is a lecturer in natural sciences at the University of Galway, where she leads research in science/art approaches to public engagement.

Next poem: Dance Number by Fiona Theokritoff