Zero divided by zero by Alice Major
There is no right answer.
The trains of logic crash, annihilate
certainty. Zero is just as good an answer
as one. Nothingness or loneliness.
The woman, Godelieve,
books an appointment to annihilate
herself. An Antwerp
euthanasia clinic.
A life too long, a brain too hurt.
Nothing is her answer.
The pastor sets himself on fire
in a Texas parking lot, annihilated
by grief for a world that cannot learn
kindness. He’s tried everything else
finds no other answer.
“Mental illness” – that’s one label
for the call to self-annihilation.
But is martyrdom, immolation,
never the sanest path, the kindest thing?
There is no right answer.
Zero divided by zero.
The past’s black hole annihilated,
divided by the null of future.
Suicide’s paradox: relief unfelt
by those who choose its answer.
Black holes are where
God divides by zero.
Annihilated
light. All our singular arrangements
of matter reduced to one
undefinable answer.
My sister holds a vial
of danger, matter that could annihilate
her, but – divided into increments –
may let her sleep, let her breathe.
But there is no answer
for the anguish that strangles her,
for the losses that seem to annihilate
her past, divide her from a future
worth living. The vial’s round mouth
seems an answer.
Saint Godelieve, “God’s
Love,” annihilated
by a cruel husband. Now God seems void
divided by a vacuum. Sometimes a thought
flares – Would it be
easier to let her go?
Then the answer
No! My sister, oh
my sister,
you terrify me. If you annihilate
this pain, then you divide us utterly.
You cannot be both zero and one.
There is no right answer.
having also written a poem about the indeterminate ("L'Hospital" in Jan. 2017 J. of Humanistic Mathematics), I really love the intensity of this poem -- bravo, Alice!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Larry, for dropping by. And here is a link to the January 2017 issue of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics -- where you can enjoy Larry's poetry and other items also: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol7/iss1/
ReplyDelete