Distance Learning

Use your own body to measure

end over end over end

 

something in your living space.

For example, how many hands

 

can cross a kitchen table?

Twenty-three times my son’s hand

 

equals the empty table.

This is submitted to the cloud

 

where his teacher may or may not be

checking to see if he’s there.

 

We learn Things that are

equal to the same thing

 

are equal to each other.

Fog over the lake is equal

 

to my 79-year-old father

jogging in the cemetery every morning

 

during the pandemic. Spring is

equal to being born again

 

in the poisoned air. Mama—I am

so sad my son rarely calls out for me

 

like this anymore. The rain

is equal to I can’t count

 

how many days spent

looking out the window through blinds

 

towards George Floyd Square.

The laws of nature are but

 

the mathematical thoughts of God

said Euclid. What is a law

 

of nature? It doesn’t add up,

my son says, how you think

 

it should all turn out and how

it does. How do I measure

 

my son growing into what

kind of a man?