Task: flood and drain a basement without moving any of its items
from their original locations. Task: engrave a memorial address into
the head of a pin. Task: organize livestock into neat rows of six. Task:
map the desert, then cross it. Task: calculate the difference between
the tortoise and the hare, between Achilles and the tortoise, between
the Earth and the moon. You know the speech In event of moon disaster
was written but never delivered, and the phrase space race fails to
reflect the fact that it doesn’t end, as far as we know. As far as we
know. Is that, like, a measurable distance. I know you as far as I can
throw you, which is to say I know you better when we’re on the moon,
impaling it with flags it doesn’t know are American, or whatever the kids
are calling it these days. There’s a giant hole in Arizona, and I’m just
trying not to digest my own stomach. Dear math, how will you save us?
The way we understand 1998. Knowing the Spanish but not how to say it.