A Traveler's Advisory From Gleick, Mandelbrot and Heisenberg

If one wanted to know
the length of the coast of California,
for example,
the answer would depend on one's
size, intention, perspective,
frame of reference;
the answer you'd get driving a car
and checking the odometer
is perfectly fine, a fine answer indeed

Now walk it.

Off the asphalt
the edge of the earth isn't smooth
like a retaining wall,
the cliffs undulate,
jut out into the sea
then recede,
there's a coastline you never see from behind the wheel
and that's also good, quite good

Try this now:

Examine the cliffs, the rocks, sand
with a magnifying glass, microscope,
look at pebbles,
grains of sand,
flecks of dirt,
the shape of things and the space between them
and tell me how long the coast is now
or even if you know where it begins or ends

Still there? Still with me?

Then why not look
inside the pebbles, sand
flecks of dirt
by shooting electrons
at their smallest constituent parts
until you're looking at things
so small that shining light on them
sends them out into infinity
and the most you can know
is not where a thing is,
but only where it was

My warning to you is this:

The closer you get to me,
the more the chaos comes into focus,
but if you've been reading me for awhile
then you probably know this.