The New Mathematics

The New Mathematics
        After the visual geometry of Dutch artist, Sigrid Calon

I. Energy

A new slant
on the Periodic Table:

Just like electrons
        filling atomic orbitals

Just like protons
        filling nucleon levels

Colored quarks
        zigzag their way
        into the heart of matter
Where do I fit in?

II. Entropy

I am broken
looking        into the mirror
but    all I see          is shattered
glass            and images   me
and my toothbrush
            and my tube of toothpaste
squeezed
            the wrong    damn          way
                    irreversible

The New Mathematics

III. Mazes

This is no Skinner box (I’m not a rat)
or Escher illusion, or squashed Möbius
strip or labyrinth for the colorblind
or simply for the blind. It’s obsessive
visual verse. That’s all I see. Not even you?

IV. Topology

If only it were a bit more abstract, my brain
would try harder to make sense of it. It’s not
even hyper dimensional geometry where my
other self might be hiding from your magenta
smile, your yellow words, your lily white heart.