Fractalization

Because I heard the wind
blowing through the sun,
I left the lecture on mathematics,
found myself scaling a mountain,
so I could see beyond
the limits of my mind
numbed by numbers,
but was stopped by an old birch
crashing across my path—
its limbs and crown
bouncing a little, before settling.
Was this a sign, perhaps,
that I shouldn’t have left?
The expert is my friend, after all,
teaching patterns of numbers,
energy and fractals,
how full we are of space.
This I heard from her lips,
before the wind called me out
and nearly hit me, but I stepped over
the fallen birch,
like a comrade in subtraction.
When I reached the summit,
I saw my geometry
multiplied in the whole
of the world below,
holograms of my deepest space.

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Laura Foley is the author of seven poetry collections, variously honored with the Foreword Book of the Year Award (Silver), finalist for the NH Writer’s Project’s Outstanding Book of Poetry, and the Bisexual Writer’s Award. Her most recent book, Why I Never Finished My Dissertation, received a starred Kirkus Review and was among their top poetry books of 2019. Her collection It's This is forthcoming from Salmon Press in 2021. Her poems have won numerous awards, and national recognition—read by Garrison Keillor on “Prairie Home Companion” and “The Writers Almanac.” At Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles Master Chorale performed composer Dale Trumbore’s “How to Go On,” based on her and two other poets’ work. She has a B.A. from Barnard College and an M. Phil. in English and Comparative Literature (Everything But Dissertation) from Columbia University.