The Sum of It

He wonders which came first:
the universe or mathematics?

In the blackness of time
a puddle of puzzles
and we, the pupils in this
unseeing eye, find the questions
sticky as displaced lashes.
We rub and rub… bringing on
the slow implosion of galaxies 
toward a single grammar

inexorable as starlight

(sigma quotient cos pi 
denominator multiply hypotenuse
equals equals equals)

uncovering the dark matter of answers.

Written for Miz Quickly Nov 4 “write about the origin of something”

This was meant to be about something small. But the prompt immediately brought to mind an interview with a physicist I listened to in which he raised the question posed at the top of the poem. It flipped my brain right over as I had always assumed that maths and all its rules were human inventions… like soccer or the law. I really had to think quite hard about his question.

24 thoughts on “The Sum of It

  1. I’m glad you like exploded brains, because mine IS! This flows awesomely from question to question. I esp like the puddle of puzzles and the unseeing pupils! Cool write. Thanks

    Liked by 1 person

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