Writing from the stemistry lab
On the impossibility of producing a Venn diagram of human emotion
by Marilyn Longstaff
Sounds easy, yeah –
just list emotions, his, then hers,
then circle where they coalesce.
They’ve been together years, so many years,
family and friends refer to them as one,
and she signs ‘MAD’ in texts
when contacting the kids (grown up, of course).
But think how many lives are run in parallel,
shouting across the tracks –
so what, we know that opposites attract
and now and then, when some controller moves the points,
their chassis almost touch and kiss,
then part again;
they’re not apart, just not together, quite.
It’s all straight lines and Venn requires
some curves, some give, some meeting
of the mind, the heart, the soul.
Maybe our couple have that in the ether,
in the feel of things,
something that can’t be listed, quantified,
corralled.