~LEE SLONIMSKY~

PYTHAGORAS GOES TO WORK

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Triangulate the sun's ascent.  Two oaks
the baseline on this steel-chill winter's day.
Diversion, suddenly now, in the way
a hawk bisects low triangle of sky
as if she lectures on geometry
to clouds that hover close.  The more he looks
the more he calculates a feathered Pi
that multiplied by gold reveals the light
the hawk explains in her wind-scything flight
to audience of fluff and haze.  But soon,
no warning, hawk dives for its prey below,
a transitory scholar only; now
a blur of angling talons, wings; that's how
the mind is ruled by blood.  The dawn's lesson.

© by Lee Slonimsky