Work Text:
recall pi to a hundred (thousand) places, some days
when you don’t even remember how old you are
or who you’re supposed to be.
recite it to me in your voice.
run perfect circles around me
with your words, your alcohol-scented breath cloying.
too dear to me, too near to me. better
an ocean between us than excuses. I hear
your music, dissonant, more than
I’ve ever heard your voice. perhaps you do the same thing,
hiding your secrets in packages for public consumption;
we all wear our academic hats.
I only wish I could be sure when you are wearing yours.
I want to pretend, at least,
to believe in the illusion of something
like but unlike, someone who knows my unknowns.
there are those incriminating facts I ignore -
who hasn’t sinned? better you than me
(not that I know better); do it for me
(because I can’t, any more).
someday I may learn pi to a hundred (thousand) places;
what, after all, do we do but kill time, and show off.