Having Never Studied Engineering
He’s taught himself the volume of a bubble
in water. When midnight approaches his ocean
he calls to tell me: now he knows how
Archimedes felt, living without
calculus. With it—with calculus—
the value of a curve is easy
to compute. But living without, sleeping
without, say, the arch of my foot
pressed into the bend of his knee keeps him
awake, waiting for my high prairie morning
to dawn. At which point my phone rings
again, when it’s easier for him to tell me
about Archimedes claiming he could move earth—
just give him a place to stand—
than it is for him to say he’s learned the value
of one quarter after experiencing the loss of this one half.
Sherry O’Keefe, a descendent of Montana pioneers and graduate of MSU-B, is the author of Making Good Use of August (Finishing Line Press). Her most current work has appeared or is forthcoming in Camas, Switched-on Gutenberg, THEMA, Terrain. Org., PANK, Avatar Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Prick of the Spindle, Inkwell, Pirene’s Fountain, Tygerburnin, The High Desert Journal and Main Street Rag. Currently working on a full collection, Cracking Geodes Open, she is the poetry editor for Soundzine. Come talk with her: http://www.toomuchaugust.wordpress.com.
Poetry | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Photography