poem: The Most Dangerous Thing I Do

poem: The Most Dangerous Thing I Do

A Chapter by Marie Anzalone
"

tongue-in-cheek selected for publication in 2014 "The Larcenist"

"

Applied mathematics saves my life each day.

    It's like this: to get anywhere,

I must cross streets, on foot.


  A molecule fighting fluid dynamics

cross-functions of near misses

 and the kinetics of stop-start-weave

    freeze, then run... hypotenuse traverse

  and the optimization of critical mass.


Each calle is a careful calculation

  of mass x acceleration, skew lines

   drawn in air, avoidance of corner solutions

for the unpredictability of right-hand turns

   and the absolute marvel of how many

     moving wheeled things can fit into

exactly two times infinity nested functions

          of traffic lanes.


I determine braking time and likelihood,

   run to tree lines and balance on 4 inch

     blocks of concrete poised like fractals

  inside the terminal velocity of shadow prices:

        the cost of pedestrian anxiety

       where diesel will always trump at the

   x-intercept of human rights.


The distributive property never quite

  caught on here. I shake my fist and am glad

      that a word as versatile as the F-bomb

    circumscribes my world: among flying insults.

 exponentially accelarated rooftop acrobatics,

  cat-calls, and a maniac apocalyptically

      brandishing a tire iron, imaginary numbers

    add up into gruesome possibilities.


Dependent events converge, parallel lines cross,

    and I make it one more step towards

       my theoretical limit, before I have to start

  over again. And love is by far the most dangerous

     thing I do, but I lie to my mother. I

          tell her that is the associative property

       of addition: the sum total any given day

     of how many times I simply try to cross

            streets in Central America.

     




  



© 2015 Marie Anzalone


Author's Note

Marie Anzalone
maybe you have to have experienced the traffic on Latin American streets to understand this poem.

no advanced maths skills needed... this is mostly just a play on words

My Review

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Featured Review

Marie it is in your vivid descritpions that your words resound powerfully as well. I like the Math reference but as you pointed out I don't think any equation will help you at rush hour. But the way you weave your emotions with what you see is really interesting. It is intriguing becuase it is raw which seems to be something in your characther, it is spontaneous and that also makes it honest. No rehearsing here or pre meditated second agendas. Very intriguing.

Thankyou


Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Thank you, Rene, for this review and your astute observations. Much of my writing is very spontaneou.. read more



Reviews

' .. .. avoidance of corner solutions ~ for the unpredictability of right-hand turns and the absolute marvel of how many moving wheeled things can fit into ~ exactly two times infinity nested functions of traffic lanes. ' Seems Latin American traffic behaviour is farcical!

As someone who can only count to ten, I found this amazingly academic but, saved my own day by smiling at various cues! Your writing always exceeds limits.. always has, always will. Seems that traffic messes with minds as well as nervous systems.. will stay in the sticks where there are only tractors and combine harvesters. Brilliantly everything, my dear friend.. as ever.

Posted 9 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

emmajoy

9 Years Ago

Having read your response, am feeling guilty now - should have been far, far more empathic, R., and .. read more
Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

emma, no worries, my friend.. my entire response was very tongue in cheek this time, not meant to be.. read more
emmajoy

9 Years Ago

Best i can do is just to be here for you even though so many miles away.

(Yes, I'm begi.. read more
Delicious. Simply delicious - and I am gluttonous for beautiful deep words today. I found them here. If I had to get across this street - I'd be a speed bump. As in math so in life.

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

There are days, TL, when I wonder how it is that I am not yet just a speed bump as well. But htne we.. read more
Marie it is in your vivid descritpions that your words resound powerfully as well. I like the Math reference but as you pointed out I don't think any equation will help you at rush hour. But the way you weave your emotions with what you see is really interesting. It is intriguing becuase it is raw which seems to be something in your characther, it is spontaneous and that also makes it honest. No rehearsing here or pre meditated second agendas. Very intriguing.

Thankyou


Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Thank you, Rene, for this review and your astute observations. Much of my writing is very spontaneou.. read more
Smartly written poem that forces the reader to not only find numbers and theory between the lines, but to imagine how this math weaves and intersects deep, into everything we do. Reading this I began to imagine the readers seeing the poet's precarious commute –––– not just in vivid imagery, but in numbers; feet vs inches, azimuths and geometrical lines, tonnage vs pounds and m & velocity = deadly force, almost envisioning what the poet sees with mathematical subtitles... A fascinating read, and the ending was poignant and deviates from the main body nicely, as if the poet steered us purposely away from her soon to be ending yet and the same time, incorporating these mathematical metaphors and visuals precisely, so that we, in our minds and hearts, might accurately compute, that subtle, mind expanding /ending.



Very cool piece, poetess.

Posted 9 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

thanks, Diego, this one was a fun write. Its inspiration came exactly as you might think: I was stan.. read more
Tree

9 Years Ago

Your piece caused me to see exactly that in my minds eye. Engineers don't have a lot of space to wor.. read more
I think there are many places in the world where there is life traffic just as you explained. It is often so confusing and the clock hands are a roulette. Even in simplicity there is chaos. Excellent read.

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Ah but my dear friend, I am not writing metaphorically. I am describing real traffic situations :) .. read more
...and it is a wonderfully constructed, tongue-in-cheek piece, the interplay of mathematical terminology and the laws of mathematics bumping up against motorists who are not particularly interested in law or mathematics. Winsome and witty stuff.

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Thank you, kortas, for seeing the humor and intent of this piece. You nailed it exactly in your desc.. read more
sounds like what it's like to be a pedestrian in downtown chicago at rush hour. i never was any good at math.

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

I imagine that some US streets approximate this state of affairs. Still, many places in the US desig.. read more
Maybe you're right. Or maybe a starter course in applied math might prove equally favourable. I like the technical slant in this: now I only have to learn what it means :)

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

thank for the review, charlie. This is far less about math and far more about simply being a play on.. read more
charlie

9 Years Ago

yep. being clued in vernacular often helps, too. Nice work, Marie

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Added on August 15, 2014
Last Updated on April 26, 2015

Non-utilitarian Living


Author

Marie Anzalone
Marie Anzalone

Xecaracoj, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala



About
Bilingual (English and Spanish) poet, essayist, novelist, grant writer, editor, and technical writer working in Central America. "A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to ta.. more..

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