Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Euclidean Valentine

Draw a straight line
out from yourself
to the far horizon
everything above this line
is air and temperature
everything below
is water and shore:
now draw another line
that goes straight through you
from the infinitely distant above
to the molten center
of the earth under your feet:
this is what Plato called
the cross of the world
and if you hang there long enough
time separates from space
the inside becomes the outside:
so he didn’t want to stay
he felt the earth was like
visiting a foreign country
whose brutal and incomprehensible
customs only the gods could still:
it took Aristotle to convince him
we’re all immigrants come
to love the earth our home

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