A Geometer Reflects Upon His Grave, Grave Lossperhaps
the pain of loss
is equal to
the square of love
divided bythe cube of time that merely passes after loss
if so, it is
an asymptote
the curve of pain
decreasing toward
but never reachingzero
there is,
I know too well,
a calculus of grief
so there must be
a formula for pain,
an equation to express intensity of lossthe constant must be learned
experimentally
and must be based upon
some unit fit
to handle paradox:
to measure loss immeasurableI'm sure already
I will call that constant
psiperhaps I'll call the unit
pang
or
tear
or better yet
the heavy-year
-- Warren F. O'Rourke, 1991blockquote>