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Formula One

by John Marvin

Arithmetic doesn't add up.
                        Kurt Gödel

For one thing
one thing
ever streams alone
such as daffodils
springing
or aspens singing
of autumn
just before cold
slithers down slopes
yellowed
by a slinking sun

or another thing
considered alone as
changeling habits
blanketing chills awhile
and cycles of thrilling
renewal and disfavor
integrate or maybe never
sublimate or vapor
clinging gold
on reflected
radiation

or lenses peering
as far as far as far
searching and researching
after answers as to why canals
vanish under a pure gaze
and robots never dream
of fame and love
but of needing proof
or one more guess
so designs can beg
another question

John Marvin is a teacher who retired and subsequently earned a Ph.D. in English at SUNY Buffalo. He has poems in scores of journals. He has published literary criticism in James Joyce Quarterly, Pennsylvania English, Hypermedia Joyce Studies and Worchester Review.

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