Mrs. Olson Was Right -- I Did Use It Again!

This week's prompt at Poetry Thursday put the fear of eleventh grade back into me. We were to write a mathematical style proof of something. Having no math background at all, I thought for sure I'd be stumped.

Luckily, I turned to the suggested website, Math Words, and I found that math is interested in some really poetically significant things, like infinitiy and equality and identity. Who knew?

Marriage as Mathematical Equation

On any variable day, we two
(whole numbers, divisible
by the space between us

in bed, the span
of hours in our days)
comprise within us

and without us an infinite
number of possibilities (hero
villain friend lover stranger

worker partner angel fiend)
crammed into a finite
space (our imperfect skins

stretched across 412 bones, countless
cells, sinew, muscle fibers). Add
or subtract anything to this equation

(tone of voice at the end
of the night, the desire,
but not the act, to hurl dirty dishes

against the wall) and the equation
remains unchanged. Multiply this
unknown, undetermined quantity

of days left, by the unspeakable
kindnesses we two can create
(squeeze of the right shoulder, kiss

that still sends shocks shooting
through fingers and toes), the equation
evolves. This shift

may be immeasurable (two
millimeters closer in bed when
we sleep, one more half second

tangled in each other’s limbs)
or mathematically insignificant (one moment
less silence), but nonetheless present and counted.