maths tutorial ii - Aaron Maniam

"let me count the ways..."

We could love like a palindrome
No difference between
'You and me'
Or 'me and you'
Continuous commutation, always
The same conclusion.

Love can be irrational
Our best efforts yield points
Of decimal estimation
As we try to round off
Our own, each other's corners.

Part of love is fractional
Sometimes awkwardly improper
Passionate numerators
Teetering like discomfort
On unstable pedestals.

As much as it pains us
Sometimes we must admit
That's love's subtration
Is also a kind of adding -
A lonely walk
Down the pavement
Of a number line

Emptiness grows, size defined
By negatives, absences and the weight
Of everything that could have been.

Aaron Maniam (his book Morning at Memory's Borders is up for the Singapore Literature Prize) is my mentor and traffic light. i stumbled across this poem, the other day while randomly flipping through the book. found it fascinating. hope you enjoy it.