What does a mathematician think about?
She thinks about expanding the difference between
two terms by the binomial theorem and how the
squaring
of a growing sequence of numbers causes the pattern to
oscillate
between positive and negative and how
x and y dance around one another in perfect symmetry
as they grow
apart and how there is a kind of music in
this choreography
of numbers.
And what does the musician think about?
He thinks about a violin concerto by Bach and how the
melody of the violin rides above the lower melodies
of the orchestra as
a lively child might splash in
moving waters which hold him safe on the sunlit
surface and how there is a kind of math in this
polyphony
and how the melody of the violin repeats
and repeats again with variations but then changes
and moves
on and how especially in the slow
harmonies of the middle movement the
high melody
evokes a kind of pain.
And what do I think about who am neither
a mathematician nor a musician?
I think about the sunlight on my wall
disclosing exactly
this accidental shade of blue and how it reminds me
of the way in which
the bottom edge of your swim
trunks folded up to reveal just this color on
the inner
lining and how the white ashes clung to your knees
and you squinted
in the smoke while you roasted
your marshmallow and how cat-like you
stalked
the frog and did so with such patience that you
were able to pet it and it
did not hop away and
how I shall never see you again.
Jay Edson