On the Difficult Terminal Illness of a Beloved —or, art, science, & being

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“Despite its mystic chic the square root of pi is indeterminate
and makes no sense, like many other things.”  –Roshi Bob
…………………………….

Black holes, Big Bang, Bada Bing,
quantum space, worm holes, theory of strings;
space is a smorgasbord of metaphors of things

Inside out, upside down, left and right,
geometry, calculus, depth and height;
Pythagoras’ spheres all sing in the dead of night

Who went where? What was what? Which was when?
Fortune, fame, persecution, plot, since time began
history alliterates again and again

Two plus two, me less you, nine times nine,
square root of pi, theorems, proofs, curve of a sine;
math is a simile for the shape of time

Bacteria, wisteria, DNA,
diphtheria, alstroemeria, the end of days;
biology’s an accident of come-what-mays…………………………

Jim Culleny, 7/31/10

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