Math Escapril (Math Poetry Month) #11-15
11. An Odd Number Of…
parity is so definite, so final so claustrophobic there’s just nowhere to breathe in this formal statement of oddness
to be, odd, or not to be, odd there is no leeway, no slack the integers must feel very pinned down, they must
drive their wives crazy buying sports cars to feel something
12. I Think We’re Lost
to be lost at sea the sea being graduate school graduate school being men who are self prophetic captains of the war boat
sorry, what I mean to say is that math academia feels a lot like a naval ship rigid and overwhelming and full of men with some
kind of complex the complex not being complex numbers it’s all very confusing we are all very lost
13. Palmful
take just a little not more than a palmful don’t worry if you don’t feel it right away knowledge can be intoxicating the rush of sharp clarity one feels it’s a high to be chased but we must be careful we must practice harm reduction
14. Taxidermy
preserving something dead how unnerving and pretty to be the same after the transformation except not really
some of the life of a vector is lost when we change spaces but we pretend not to see it how unnerving and pretty, we say
15. Something Very Gentle
it is a sweetness the gentle way a curve lies tangent to some line kissing only once departing after only one shared moment