Zeno

Zeno
Back when Socrates
was a young man
of about twenty years
of age
there lived in
what we now call
Italy
at a place which
just so happens
is where my maternal
ancestors come from
and relatives still now live
a man named
Zeno
who
wrote a book
of forty paradoxes
since stolen
only five
survive
to this day
and continue
to confound all attempts
to be counted false
by mathematics
by reason
by logic
even though we know
undeniably
undoubtedly
unequivocally
there is no lie
in
his observations
his descriptions
his conclusions
but only in our own reliance
upon
logic.

When Socrates was a young man
he discussed
the underlying paradox
of all the forty
with Zeno the Philosopher
with Parmenides the Poet
with six other like minded
friends of Socrates
Cephalus, Adeimantus
Aristoteles, Pythodorus
Glaucon, Antiphon
so it can be wholly said that
Socrates
that bastion of immortal wisdom
that tower of insurmountable reason
that temple of immeasurable intellect
fell flat
and admitted
complete
defeat.

"I cannot tell you."
were Socrates' last words
on the subject.

Aristotle and Plato
were stymied
by the four they knew
and
agreed that
Zeno's paradoxes
must be deceptions
must be fallacies
must be rejects
somehow
someway
somewhen
or else
all they said
all they taught
all they thought
was inside out
was upside down
was backwards forward
but Plato and Aristotle
could not deny
could not break
could not refute
Zeno's Paradoxes
thereby admitting
they were left deaf
they were left mute
they were left blind
in the glorious radiance
of Zeno's brilliance
and the awful silence
of their own
ignorance.

Simplicius
the last master
of Plato's Academy
tells of the fifth
paradox
but makes no
serious attempt
to refute it
knowing the consternation
the other four
paradoxes
caused his ancient mentor
Plato
so
Simplicius refused it
and indeed
even today
scientists
philosophers
mathematicians
ignore the fifth
as if it did not exist
or was somehow
less important
than the other four
of which they still do not
understand.

After Simplicio
Zeno's paradoxes
the five known
and the thirty-five
unknown
were left to rot
in back rooms
and
lunatic asylums
until
resurrected by
Canor, Frege, Russell
and
Weierstrass
they who thought
they who labored
they who birthed
the bastard sciences of
the infinite
and of calculus
and yet even then
no relief from the paradoxes
exist
as none of the above
knew fractal theory
knew quantum theory
knew ultimate reality
but Zeno certainly
did.

Zeno
still yet
confounds all attempts
to explain or reject
by mathematics
by science
by logic
his endless emotion
his enduring experience
his everlasting eternality.

What those other
thirty-five
lost paradoxes
have to offer
we do not know
because
some jealous soul
some spiteful soul
some fearful soul
stole Zeno's book
which Zeno never re-wrote
or so they say
nor did anyone else recount
or so they say
or did anyone else care
or so they say
though perhaps
somewhere
buried under thousands of years
of forgotten dirt
lies all forty
paradoxes
waiting
a paradox
in itself.

If I may
answer for Zeno
I would say
reason cripples
reason blinds
reason fails
when left solely to
its own merits
its own devices
its own individuality
and therefore
any reasonable discussion
on any reasonable subject
by any reasonable people
misses the wonder
misses the reality
misses the point
of the universal
All.