Dead or Alive

by Helena Pantsis

I wonder,

if when Schrödinger
was set inside his casket

they hesitated to lay him in the earth
for fear
they would be 

burying the

man
alive.

You can find him now
in Alpbach,

in a cemetery

knocking against
the wood grain

of a man-sized box

maintaining
his quantum

superposition

in the event
that his heart

never really

stopped
beating.

Helena Pantsis (she/they) is an editor, writer and artist from Naarm, Australia with a fond appreciation for the gritty, the dark, and the experimental. Her works have been published in Overland, Island, Meanjin, and Cordite. More can be found at hlnpnts.com.