2.FIVE MATH POEMS

by Eileen Tupaz

i'm tired of being a zero vector

i'm tired of being a zero vector

with no direction

no dimension

and no magnitude;

what i need is another element

but that would be

a contradiction

of my definition

soulmates

we are all of us

nonsingular creatures

whose identities

must be affirmed

before our inverses

can be found

conformity

why must life

be a diagonal matrix?

where every other path

that deviates from the main

is an unacceptable

                - zero

               

[  ]

we are born

as identity matrices

[nonzero]

[nonempty]

a subset

of the complexity

that is the universe

until fate hands us a scalar

from the twin ends of infinity

and we grow in magnitude

to become universes

                - ourselves

breaking point

a vector

is a scalar

that has been pushed

     - too far