A poem by Nicholas Laughlin
First published
in Zarf 11, 2018
Because the World Is Round
What colour is a
pound of neutrons? Why do nosebleeds
stop? If you went to the bottom of
the ocean and cut open a fibre-optic cable and looked into
the end of it, would the light be bright enough to blind
you? Do animals know or care if we
are naked? Are roses somehow not the
same as other flowers? How many
potato chips would it take to stop a
bullet? Is existential dread a
natural phenomenon?
Can snakes move their eggs?
If you drink a shot of vodka after brushing your teeth, do
you have to brush them again? Do
famous people introduce themselves to each
other? What kind of gosling is
this? If you were falling in an
endless pit could you fall asleep?
What is the coldest star we know
about? Is there such a thing as
being too small to fit through an
exit? What is a “leopard head
town”? If a helicopter could hover
for 24 hours straight, would the entire earth rotate beneath
it? What happens if you watch a
movie in your dream that you’ve never seen
before? Why don’t we sneeze in our
sleep? If I held some soil and a
seed in my bare hand for long enough, could I grow a tree?