abstract | Fred Aiken Writing

October 31, 2024

pyramid scheme rule (a wicked ode to a wicked shape)

when i was in the third grade
and just learning	how to		m-ull-tee-pli
i told my classmates i 
		wanted to rule 
		rule
		rule
the world, but only if the 	world was a triangle
and i could see all the angles
		coming at me
				at
all times		times the square root		of four
but no one 	ever thought to put down
their nuclear weapons to do the math
so that we could have a triangular world
		that didn’t make me so damn dizzy,
		like a merry-go-round 
		being operated by a felon named jed
			missing 		a 		hand;
missed me, yet again

July 6, 2024

geometric horror show

abstract bodies piling up
in geometric dissolution,
while numbers calculate the dead
that will never return to their families,
and birds whistle songs
that don’t mean much to the worms
feasting on the carrion