Love is Cumbersome to Calculate

Darkness has been known to swallow people,
distant stars and (admittedly small) solar systems. I was once in love
with a woman who reeked of entropy, who
snorted lines of apathy and gradually began to disappear.
These things happen, sometimes, and I suspect
the ambitious mathematician
could plot their frequency and calculate the slope,
which would tell us very little of love itself,
except perhaps, that love is cumbersome to calculate
and seldom looks good on paper.
But love certainly looks good in black pumps,
standing at the edge of the known universe in a sequined miniskirt
casually holding a cigarette while
darkness swallows the smoke.

John A. Burton


Back to the Astrophysicist's Tango Partner Speaks