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