The Joys of Math
Slender reeds sway gently
In the cool breeze of your passage
The whispery songs of dusk
Carry across the placid waters
The trembling shadows of clouds
Skim lightly
Across the liquid mirror of the pond
A flock of young geese
Is pecking hungrily
At the waterlogged and bloated corpse
Of your tutor
The axe wound
In her eyeless skull
Gapes darkly
In the dying light
Of a perfect summer day
As you glide back
Across the dew-glittered meadow
Toward the house
The first tremulous notes
Of the nightly choir of frogs and cicadas
Float up into the darkening sky
Blanketing the thin and muffled screams
Of the tutor's daughter
Her head cracks and implodes
Like a coconut wrapped in a wet towel
As I lean on the handle
Of the big vise
In our toolshed
Equations and asymptotic curves
Variables and discontinuities
I Subtract Thee From The Sum of Humanity
The eels down at the murky bottoms
Will have thoughts for food tonight
The eels down at the murky bottoms
Will have thoughts for food tonight
Autor(es): Mark Englander
