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Friday, July 19, 2013

Common Core

I watched this YouTube video
all about math and how it weaves
its way into every inch of our lives.
Each moment, turn of a wheel,
turn of a combination 
lock, turn of a head
has a mathematical equation attached, some x to solve for, 
some function.

And my first thought
was whether or not
math could capture the speed
of my veins or the temperature 
of my blush as I think about you.
Could it quantify the cloudiness 
that blurs my logic and leaves
my tongue numb, twisted into quiet?

Could math find a way to make
You next to Me,
like 1 is next to 2?
Adam and Eve.
In the beginning. Maybe
math can make life whole again,
could find a way to fill
the gaps of too many days
between hello 
and too many reasons not to be
1 and 2.

Maybe it's just math that 
keeps us from adding up, 
a theorem of what cannot be.

But even numbers can be imaginary 
and still they find their way to the paper,
find their way to be real, to be seen.

That's not us. We are real,
but no one can see
and we can't say
and words and numbers fail.

But the math of you and me,
of 1 and 2,
takes me back to the start,
counting minutes til
we equal something 
more than the sum
of our parts.