False Correlations

[woostering]

I selected

a suitably interesting subject

One that needed more knowing about

The greatest, you might say

I read the background research

(thought I had it down)

—although background turns out to be

a factor minor to irrelevant—

Set out my hypothesis;

There was, I thought

Some system

Which others worked under

And so too would I,

Eventually.

There’s a flaw in my study

The data got all skewed

Perhaps irreparably.

All wrong

and nothing better than muddled

That’s what happens

When you examine fields

Not really your area.

Hypotheses were… reexamined?

Repeat the test

And repeat and repeat and repeat

That’s how it works

But this is not empirical,

never will be

case-by-case let’s see

how did they—

But there’s a flaw in my study

Though I must continue

For all its frayed words

I want to sing and

cannot

for though I plot them well enough

I cannot hit the notes

I want to know why the shifting of these points

to everyone sounds so grand

and live encased in meanings

that I do see and feel and understand

Because a flawed study still provides results

Just maybe not for the question

You were asking.