Theory and Reality

by Skinner G. Layne

My life of charts and graphs
Of mathematical tears
And algorithmic laughs
Where I add equation x
To the top of axis y
And the lines and slopes descend
Til it divides by eight times pi.
Want and need are always met
At that overlapping point
Of the Phi and Omega sets.
The compromise of life and land
Is most predictably found
Where supply intersects demand.
If only books and essays could
Translate into real life
And computation of two and two never would
Turn out to four plus five.
For Plato's cave may entice
Those who thrive on theory
And dread life's vice
But function g and d of C
Could never hope any day
To boast the ocean's majesty.
Nor could cosine and his friends
Be fairer than the sunset
Or the flower petal's ends.
The order of sigma and of mu
Are maddening perfection
That no beauty can undo.
Rules cannot exist while being free,
So why can I not be content
When one and two don't make three?