Valentine’s Day was this week, so long-time readers should know what to expect. To continue this blog’s tradition, I’m posting another one of my old physics poems.

 

Winding Number One

 

When you feel twisted up inside, you may be told to step back

That after a long time, from a long distance

All things fall off.

 

So I stepped back.

 

But looking in from a distance

On the border (at infinity)

A shape remained

Etched deep

In the equation of my being

 

A shape that wouldn’t fall off

Even at infinity.

 

And they may tell you to wait and see,

That you will evolve in time

That all things change, continuously.

 

So I let myself change.

 

But no matter how long I waited

How much I evolved

I could not return

My new state cannot be deformed

To what I was before.

 

The shape at my border

Is basic, immutable.

 

Faced with my thoughts

I try to draw a map

And run out of space.

 

I need two selves

Two lives

To map my soul.

 

A double cover.

 

And now, faced by my dual

Tracing each index

Integrated over manifold possibilities

We do not vanish

We have winding number one.