Science, Math, and the Elusive Logic of Love

Science, Math, and the Elusive Logic of Love

I wander through my parent’s second story,

Sit down, try to study my notes on dioxins, DDT.

It was the worst argument in our history,

Now I just want to tell you about persistent estrogen mimics, PCB’s,

And the effects of altrazine on frogs.

What can I do, math is next, working on logs.

Your anger was justified, though I won’t admit it.

If I had control, my anxiety attacks would happen when I am alone.

You called me when you came home, you saw the empty closet,

I purposely left the dirty dishes and that half-eaten calzone.

My screaming, reeling, crisis mode, your utter exhaustion,

Combined, like nitric acid and hydrazine, leading to combustion.

You don’t have to convince me, because that void I pretend isn’t real

Gnaws at me, and when you say we still belong, inside I say, it’s true.

I feel the need to shine, blinding you, as if I am steel.

Now you show you are vulnerable, bendable as gold.

We are oppositely charged ions, we already formed a covalent bond,

I look in the backyard, I start to notice the fractal in a fern frond.

-Sarah Polansky