Mathrimony

Calculating with exactitude
the definitive parameters
of her connubial existence,
the mathematical genius
considers for the nth time
the exquisite irony of marrying
a man whose "math anxiety"
was nearly phobic in its intensity.

Perhaps his sexuality index, s,
appearing as it did
in the numerator of her equation
(where, raised to a very high power
indeed, it compensated
for various fault factors
in the denominator), had much
to do with it. But man
does not live on bed alone,
and the import of other variables,
equally complex, does not escape her.

She considers the possible solutions,
real and imaginary,
all neatly arrayed on the foolscap
of her cerebral cortex,
and realizes with dismay that,
despite their abiding love
for one another, she and her husband
had chosen asymptotic pathways
through life's topography:

they would always grow closer
and closer, the chasm between them
getting smaller and smaller forever,
but would never quite coincide.
She smiles, recognizing a good thing
when she sees it. Besides, not being
numbers, they could always

reach across the gap.