Galois Theory – by Richard Luftig

That which makes the connection between two sets of phenomena easier to understand.

It is the way we struggle
to explain this life,

the way one senses
a future for newborn

grass while it sleeps
beneath a foot of February

snow. Or how lotus stars
burst upon frosted window

panes. No, whatever equation
we seek must contain

that push and pull
of equilibrium,

always taking into
account the gravity

of our situation;
this fulcrum,

that hovers
between points

that live in delicate
balance, demanding

that whatever is done
to one half of us

must also occur
with the other.

 

Richard Luftig is a former professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio now residing in California. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Canada, Australia, Europe, and Asia. Two of his poems recently appeared in Ten Years of Dos Madres Press.