Math Lesson

by Chris Rodgers

We are rational creatures
we want everything to add up
but like all ratios
there are two sides to the story
whose value is found only
by division between the two

Zero is not nothing
but a placeholder for values
and division by zero is infinite
badly approximated
because our zeroes
are not small enough to show
how little one side knows of the other

As above, so below
but when no line can be drawn
between the two
we say it is irrational
because the values don’t repeat
and our mind, which we call rational,
longs to repeat ad infinitum

Even the zero
which is not nothing
is irrational in its circle
when its breadth stirs into orbit
dividing into itself forever
content to hold no value of its own
dissolving the rational
with emptiness

Pythagoras is said
to have had a man killed
who leaked the secret out
but it’s no secret now:
between every two rationals
there sits an irrational
forever blurring the line
between the two

— from Juniper Volume 1, Issue 1