if the beginning is the idea of two,

say two friends, marcy and colin,

but think of them in the abstract,

say, (5x-3) and (2x+7), because, why not,

because names are arbitrary labels,

and friends are unique, and

marcy and colin aren't as simple as

marcy and colin; anyway, 

they interact in the course of a day,

perhaps more so at night, and all of a sudden

they look like 10x squared + 29x - 21

and they feel like the relationship

is better defined, because

relationships are complicated,

and marcy and colin, as names, 

are shortcuts that don’t fit the moment.

~

or, another way of looking at it,

remember how x squared - y squared = 1?

hyperbolas, curves coming together, briefly near, 

then drifting apart in perfect symmetry? 

that is not marcy and colin,

that is us, that is us saying goodbye,

irrevocably, and not in a good way,

in a two-bodies-drifting-apart-in-space way,

those curves are destined 

to follow their mathematical paths 

into eternity, never again to meet,

and, as we determined—never is a long time.

i take no comfort in this slick, sick equation, 

i long for the union of two sets.

in the world of  mathematics it works,

in the messy world of blood and guts, it fails.