Poem 450

A feeler gauge is used to adjust the gap in a spark plug but the name sparked me into speculating about another gap, that between human individuals … too close and you’re burned by the current of others’ emotions, too wide and the spark of empathy can’t arc across … I wished my boundaries were similarly adjustable and here imagine being able to be aware of the swirl of feelings around me, to observe and detect but not be overwhelmed, as if I could measure human pressure and temperature as dispassionately as a barometer … the last lines reference the gold standard measurements kept in controlled environments so all our instruments can be calibrated against them (and the lack of a universally accepted standard for human distance) … while the snow ponders the price of such disconnection …

( I particularly like only the interest of the instrument … )

Feeler Gauge

Today I'm the gauge
of feelings
not the owner of them

the sun slices spaces
out of the wind
warms a wall at my back
and the woman going sobbing
supported down the stairs
leaves something
that the sun melts
or the wind takes away

gauge of feelings

only the interest
of the instrument
turning to sample the wind
to take the weather
of all about me

this sensitive balance
calibrated against
the perfect unfluctuating
human measure
sealed somewhere
a letting in of mercury
or a silent cumulation
of snow