Dear Magnitude, I leave the how much
to you. Bereft of equation,

I'd rather logarithms lodged elsewhere—
there is no sensitivity in numbers,

only in effects. In the calm, let us speak
in effects: a ball drops

dragon's mouth-to-frog's mouth,
a pendulum swings on its knife-edge

pivot. I'd say the measurable
captivates more than the measurement

in any accident, but I am merely a mass
suspended. Set my pen

to drum, set my drum recording—
I am the instrument of your intensity

and you my more. If there
be foundation, I have found it

to be oscillating. If there be water,
it is something falling.

Be peak to my trough, be hand
fastened to my throat. Shake me

something fierce and I will be the figure
of what you did.

- Cecily Parks, "Self-Portrait as a Seismograph"