In Time I too Shall Learn to Simplify

In time I too shall learn to simplify,

For nothing's so complex we can’t reduce it.

In Maths, even the enigmatic pi

Can be simple as 22/7

Infinite as it is.

When I’m sick, in my dreams I become an ant

Inflated by my own weight.

I count my steps and hesitate

Because I see roads diverge

Unaware of the circle they wind into.

Circles we can calculate, ants as well.

They creep towards food and scuttle off from attacks.

Like them, it’s purpose we look for, not meaning.

In the one and only equation in this world,

Extra figures, so dear to us, are just enchantments.

My pencil quivers in my grip

Over numbers that signify nothing.

Strokes after strokes after strokes, digits

Are crossed, returned to null.

Among the twenty-four hours,

I spend two a day

Not on feeding or security.

As the choir sings a mass,

A light glows on the stage,

A crystal-clear sphere looms out,

Enlarges, and envelopes us.

I cry at its sheer grandeur, and forget

That the mouths chanting this moving magnificence

Are also fond of petty jabberings.

Where music ceases, clamour abounds.

Among the harmonic unity,

What’s characteristic of us is not lost

But refined, frozen at the moment.

I enjoy wandering in playgrounds

Where children chatter and loiter

Under the lazy afternoon sun.

I sit on a bench, memories flicker.

Not in want of anything,

Not wishing this were forever,

Nor to forget where I am,

Nor to stir no more at what I see.

As the sun sets, smells of dinner steal out.

Crossing slides and bushes, they leave.

I tread on with my long shadow,

Look up, and count the stars.

6 June 2020 Shatin

Image: Taken in Tsing Yi, Autumn 2018