Julia Collins
Selection

Those who believe in probability
assume piously, pulling marbles from drawstring
bags, counting colors like slick gold—1 Blue,
2 yellow, 3 red—noting changes in proportion, deferring
to some law of large numbers.

They should not count on the cling
of attributes, tight, like epoxy; or assume
the untried, unseen angles of character hold
shape through the act of selection.

They forget the marbles
were spheres first; only
later, colors. They are so pleased,
choosing blue.

But the risk remains: the groupings
we make may not be arbitrary.

We distinguish by color. Colors
inter-grade. Spheres
are irreducible, units of
identity. The reddest marble inside
the bag cannot be removed.

Probability accumulates itself like pyrite and plaster
dust; bags swell to spheres and are handed
around for currency. Believers
brandish their open bags Select!
as if the bags are solely
containers and are not themselves
selectable—or were not
already selected.

<< Back to Issue 12, 2008