AGGREGATE HEAT
An accumulation of very small things: for example, the heat transmitted from let's say an ant in every instance of its putting down what is at the very end of one of six appendages or legs, shall we call it feet for the time being, as it makes its way across the surface of an open newspaper – except that only the instances where an ant foot touches the black ink of a newspaper shall the heat qualify to be measured and included in the overall aggregate, in this case the Ant Heat Transmission with the Ink Exception. We are on our merry way to coming up with a very small but very lovely number, when a fight breaks out in the household. Two human voices are yelling at each other in the other room, which means that the dog goes crazy, because the dog goes crazy whenever humans get in a fight, but only when they are really fighting. We've tried this before, pretend-fighting, where the dog just looks on with mild bemusement or even disinterest, and so it is that we are such bad actors that we can't even fool our dog. But when the fighting is real and the dog goes crazy, it runs about all over the house. The newspaper was on the floor, and the dog only stepped on just a small corner of it, but it is enough to send a message of alarm to the ant walking atop it, and now the ant goes crazy. Or rather, it starts running, all six appendages working together for its common purpose of I don't know what. Panic, perhaps. So the number of steps taken by the ant per second increases, but this also means that the ant makes its way off of the paper as quickly as it possibly can. Now we are unsure if the aggregate measure of heat is larger in this case, the case that happened, or if it would have been greater had the ant stayed calmly meandering the black and white splotches on the newspaper on the floor.
NAKAYASU
Sawako Nakayasu was born in Japan and has lived mostly in the US since the age of six. Her most recent books are Texture Notes (Letter Machine, 2010), Hurry Home Honey (Burning Deck, 2009), and a translation of Kawata Ayaneʼs poetry, Time of Sky// Castles in the Air (Litmus Press, 2010). Her translation of Takashi Hiraideʼs For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut (New Directions, 2008) received the 2009 Best Translated Book Award from Three Percent.
www.sawakonakayasu.net ISSUE #28 POETSARTISTS 2011 PAGE #4 SAWAKO
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