Death of a mathematician
Kelso High School - 17:03:09

A teacher died in school today.  A massive heart attack.

Age fifty five. That’s five times eleven

or a lonely one times fifty five

Surely those cannot be - the only factors divisible

into the age of a man

How do you measure death?

How do you measure that loss?

with its zero of nothingness,

the L just like the one

of a single precious life.

You can take two s’s from loss,

turn one upside down,

like the lives of those left,

add them together to form eight.

Is that the beginning of grief?

Eight can never measure his loss.

Push it over in a rage, till it’s collapsed on its side,

like two eyes crying for ever.

Infinity is the symbol of the mathematician

who never dies …

∞

©Nigel Bridges 2009

www.nigelbridges.com