Friday, August 12, 2022

mathematical unity

You will be half my age

Fifteen years from now

Should we both live that long

And still care about ratios


You are gaining on me that way

Compared to fifteen years ago

When I was four times older than you

And you solved logic puzzles for fun


There's enough information here

For someone to determine our ages

Turning a word problem into equations

A construct I make to distract me as I wait to hear


What I care about to the exclusion of all else 

The next update from the operating room

Wanting it to be a complete success 

Wanting this risky operation to be finally over


And so I visualize the neurosurgeon delicately scraping

Watching the instruments on the endoscope monitor 

Removing the tumor from your pituitary gland

Trying to do no harm in the process


And I see you hour after hour intubated and immobilized

In a kind of medically induced coma

Knowing it's a long way back after six hours under

Today and tomorrow and the weeks ahead


Hoping you will welcome a mathematical diversion 

As you slowly recover your full health

Plotting the graph of our relative ages over time 

Seeing the curved asymptote approach unity