Saturday, April 16, 2011

I Don't Care for Math

NAPOWRIMO DAY 16

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am terribly behind! Today I will endeavor to regain my momentum; I've still got Days 13, 14 and 15 to finish. But here is today's poem....

I Don’t Care for Math

A plain, white and plastic school ruler
yes, the kind which children use
(with the black markings of inches
and on the other side centimeters),
lies in every scholar’s desk –though as a guess
most deplore using it; wastes
the outdoors — this instrument beats
the young brain into submission.
Counting. Length. Dimension. Knowing
the measurement
of a Thing.
Few bother with the uninteresting
details; who decided the counts, lengths,
dimension, measurements; how many
Rulers make a mile of dark
pavement? The distance in a stride of
a Man? The pitch of a mountain peak;
pit of despair? Who decides? Why?
Science? Careful, I do not wish to entrap
us in both in the reasonings of maths I do not
understand—because it is a universal language
that is too smart for me, like understanding the
reasonings behind heaven and hell;
well, not quite. What Ruler then,
commissioned the ruler? What road
led man there? What summits were reached to
determine the world could be described
inch by inch centimeter by centimeter. Don’t get
me started on protractors. They
protract my interest until all is 
lost. What ruler can behold the pits
of a man’s soul?  It must be a very strange
Ruler, and very large. Forget first grade, for no
Man can ever behold that measuring.


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