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SAFETY IN NUMBERS
A number plus nothing equals itself
A number times nothing equals nothing
A number can not be divided by nothing
And some numbers can not be divided evenly
By anything except one and themselves
I have never been any good at understanding the relation between numbers
I learned to solve math problems by rote memorization
Four times four equals
Sixteen times four equals
Sixty-four times four equals
Two hundred and fifty six times four equals
One thousand and twenty four
One Zero Two Four
10:24 pm
Baltimore
Men sashay by in prides of fives and sixes
Dividing my thoughts
With stereotypes
Fear
And the expectancy that I multiply
Yearning factors in there, too
Baffling me more than the quadratic equation ever could
Graham was my math
I didn't understand him
But man
He fascinated me
I would sit across from him in Geometry
Trying to discern the area of his pupils
Dreaming of running my fingers through his hair
And discovering there are more follicles on his head
Than there are digits in pi
When he sucked in his cheeks in thought
His lips became a vertical infinity
That I would have died to get lost in
But I was straight
I had a girlfriend
And we were happy
The battle of the sexes raged like a tennis match in my mind
I love tennis
The arc of the balls
The angle of the shot
The speed of the spin
I love tennis because of its relationship to geometry
Which I loved for its relationship to Graham
And tennis is a gay sport
And the term gay sport is a stereotype
And I hate stereotypes
And I thought I loved women
I love Jennifer
And I don't understand what's going on
And this is math
In the midst of all this confusion
I sat Graham down and told him how I felt about him
He hasn't talked to me since
So what have I learned from this experience?
Well,
Graham has taught me that I sometimes love men
And tennis has taught me that love equals nothing
And geometry has taught me that a number cannot be divided by nothing
But life has taught me not to trust the rules of math
Because Graham has taught me that two friends CAN be divided over love
And what's left over is one man
With a remainder of divided thoughts
- Adam Stone