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Saturday, July 10, 2021

SELECT COMMITTEE

by Claude Clayton Smith


Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announces her appointments to a new select committee to investigate the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 1, 2021. From left are Rep. Elaine Luria, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, Rep. Pete Aguilar, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Bennie Thompson. Rep. Liz Cheney also accepted Pelosi's invitation to join the committee. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP via abc news.


A singularity occurs but once in time
and space: the Big Bang, for instance;
 
or at a point of infinite mass density
where gravity distorts such time and space
into the final state of matter as it’s
black hole bound;
.
or when the derivative of a given function
of a complex variable does not exist, but
every neighborhood of which contains points
for which the variable does exist.
 
And now comes a new singularity:
a select committee to investigate
whether a house divided against itself
can stand, or if the point at which all
concepts that give life meaning
become irrelevant.
 

Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University, Claude Clayton Smith is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four others. His own books have been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese.