Yesterday, some visitors
interrupted geometry class-
angry voices raged around the room,
unwilling to stay caged within my head,
while I spoke pleasantly
of axioms of incidence,
placements of parallels,
number of degrees
in the angles of rectangles.
Wake up. This is not difficult-
no hungry mouths to feed, no
bleeding wounds to heal. Adopt
a polygonal attitude. Examine
an assumption. Abandon the postulate
that says, don't ever question.
You were not born knowing.
Your mind won't get dirty
on a tangent of hyperbolic thought.
Open up.
Let one eye watch
the parallels
that meet.
Shift to a point
of perspectivity.
Draw those lines
that cross
at your heart.
My students
ignored these voices,
so I dismissed them
and went on-
politely coaxing
obtuse angles
to square up
and respond.
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