Issue 40: Winter 2018

Laws of Motion

A body in motion remains emotion less a body in relationship

A body in motion remains emotion
less a body in relationship the relationship now
will be described between a body here and your body hereinafter
referred to as the object when acted upon by force
this has yet to be proven but the maximum
amount of force a body can exert
on another object given the gravity
of the situation is a constant, as is the length
of a skirt. Can you tell us for example
how you were blind drunk or not to the angle
at which your body would be viewed as a thing
of a liar especially dressed like that?
We calculate the distance between knees inversely
proportional to a proximal cause
of resistance you ought to have known
about attraction equal and opposite
under the law when a body chooses
to enter the room of another body
it’s only force if there’s resistance
beyond a reasonable doubt you ought
to have known how force can result
from contact or non-contact. But tell us
how if it was force why were there cuddles
and talking why here and after
was there contact these are deemed
inadmissible changes in emotion used
against the tendency of a body that remains
at rest. Tell us how your object here
and after referred to as the objection
your honour, that was never made
because of how after it was over your body
remained at rest we can prove when it comes
to inertia you cannot fire a bullet in a vacuum;
if friction can be eliminated so can the resistance.
This is where the case will rest until it is shown
resistance can be an invisible force until
we doubt false laws until
we listen to you,
the proof.

About the author

Paola Ferrante’s poetry and fiction have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Puritan, The Fiddlehead, CV2, Joyland, Room Magazine, Carte Blanche, CanthiusMinola Review, Overland, and elsewhere. Her poetry was a finalist for The Malahat Review’s 2019 Open Season Awards, nominated for the 2018 Best of the Net award, and longlisted for the 2017 Thomas Morton Memorial Prize. Her fiction won first prize in Room Magazine’s 2018 Fiction Awards, was shortlisted for PRISM International’s 2018 Grouse Grind, and was longlisted for SmokeLong Quarterly’s 15 anniversary Flash Fiction Award. Her chapbookThe True Confessions of Buffalo Bill, was published by Anstruther Press. This poem is a part of her first full-length poetry collection, What to Wear When Surviving A Lion Attack, which is forthcoming from Mansfield Press in Spring 2019. She resides in Toronto, Canada.