“What is the Density of the Dead Sea?”
By Mike James
overheard in conversation at the mall
If you can float in your neighborhood swimming pool, you can float in the Dead Sea. You can drown in any body of water. My mother and my grandmother and all my aunts and great-aunts told me that many times as a child. It was always true, but never happened to me.
When you stick your finger in a glass, the water moves. Think of this displacement. Now think of math class and multiply displacement by whatever number you wish. This test is three more than multiple choice. Oh, don’t scrunch your face in worry. Archimedes won’t come along, munching on a carrot, to check your answer. His posthumous concerns are plentiful, but don’t include this.
There are game shows millions of old women watch while dying their hair tinsel or, yes, confetti blue. They might sit on the edge of their seats for an answer. Those game shows have been on many years, which seems like always since always is whatever life we are in. Seriously, click your heels and say what is.
Mike James makes his home outside Nashville, Tennessee and has published widely. His many poetry collections include: Journeyman’s Suitcase (Luchador), Parades (Alien Buddha), Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor (Blue Horse), First-Hand Accounts from Made-Up Places (Stubborn Mule), Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog), My Favorite Houseguest (FutureCycle), and Peddler’s Blues (Main Street Rag.) He served as an associate editor of The Kentucky Review and currently serves as an associate editor of Unbroken.