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Beth Bachmann

(Philosophy and Fun of Algebra by Mary Everest Boole, 1909)
Mary says, angels are great, but you gotta know when they're fucking with you.

Like, for example, Jacob: most people see angels somewhere Mary says is pretty—
clouds or flame—but Jacob sees them on a ladder, which Mary says is unromantic—
two sides reaching toward each other that can never touch.

Do you disagree?

A little girl prays to Mary: the powers of darkness must be the wolves under my bed
because they disappear when the sun rises.

Mary says put all the facts in one column and the sums in the other.

This leaves space for adding more facts.

Angels, Mary says, lead to algebra because they lie.

An angel cannot tell you how many petals there are on a buttercup

Solve for the great unknown, Mary says, the sacred X.

Image = fact = madness until proven true.

I set you children a lesson, Mary says. Our unknown is I am.

The angel comes with a message about a broken link or a loose chain.

Infinity, Mary says, equals how many children, how much cake.
from the journal IMAGE
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The trick of this poem, for me, was to think about math, religion, and immortality in a small space so I needed to begin with what Jimmy Stewart offers Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, an “eye-opener,” a peace offering, something to counter the morning light; hence, the opening line: “Mary says, angels are great, but you gotta know when they’re fucking with you.” From there, a meditation on eternity ensues.

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Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again"

"It's a long poem....that captures the wide swath of feelings from members of the under-class begging America to fulfill its stated promises. It was deeply relevant then, and still is today—as evidenced by Sen. Cory Booker yesterday quoting the poem in support of Supreme Court nominee Kentaji Brown Jackson during her second day of confirmation hearings."

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"In the context of a colonized society that reduces freedom into superficial consumer choices or bluntly eliminates that freedom through systemic violence, writing can question unjust hierarchies and unthinking habits that need to be reconsidered. It can make space for the imagination to move swiftly as dragonflies at dusk, or as easily as otters floating affectionately together. It makes room for a world where every creature has a place, every life form matters."
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