"Who Counts, Counts" -- by Stephanie Strickland

       Stephanie Strickland is a poet whom I know and much admire -- and her work contains a rich variety of math-poetry creations; her poems have been featured in several posts in this blog (Here's a link to those postings.)  Today I had the good fortune to refind another of her poems -- not yet posted herein -- and I offer it below.  

     Who Counts, Counts      by Stephanie Strickland

          Baby and you
          --and me,
          we will make three,

                 but baby-and-me
                 are different; we're two-
                 who-are-one.  

          So, together, five--or we were, when
          I-was-two-in-one.
          but

                 wishing, it was so hot
                 that summer, I was wishing
                 we were two.

          You and me, we've been two
          who were one as well, but nobody thinks
          that's the same, or

                 a problem.  How
                 many of us were there really,
                 when

          I-was-two-who-were-one?  Was it
          five: us-two + we-three?
          Or three?

                 Or two.
                 You said, "If it came
                 --God forbid--to that, well then,

          just
          two. "You meant, should it come,
          Godsent, to some crux,

                 should push
                 come to knife.
                 just

          Baby and you.

This poem is included in the anthology  STRANGE ATTRACTORS:  Poems of Love and Mathematics  published October, 2008 by A K Peters, Ltd  and coedited by me and Sarah Glaz. University of Connecticut mathematician and poet.   Here is a link to a brief and thoughtful review of the collection.

Biographical information about Strickland is available here in Wikipedia.  One more Strickland poem to mention -- here is a link to "Presto!  How the Universe is Made,"  found at poets.org.