DAS Blog

The Shapes of People
(Upon reflections leading to consideration of Chapter 5 of Pikei Avos)

"There are three kinds of mathematicians:
Those who can count and those who can't"

Some people are pears
and some are apples
They say (and they know all)
that pears are healthier

If some people are squares
nu? maybe some people are rectangles
and some are ovals?

Some people are so circular
as they walk, you imagine them
as roly-polies (or is that rolies-poly?) already in a ball
not as scared Armadillos, though -- not at all

Meanwhile, other people are so thin
you can barely see them
And some stand so erect
it makes you think
about how we all stand on two legs and not four
(When this is all you think about
when watching a sitcom -- you know
that the sitcom deserves to be
cancelled, even
though they give the stars a raise
while you remain out of work)

Some people form a line
Aesclepian snakes of bromine
or Iodine or whatever elements you can imagine
Nature (a singular person,
your heart she alone will gladly batter)
doesn't limit herself to only a few measly elements
the way a committee of divinities would

Of course, like sulfur dioxide,
most people are molecules
It's the combination of shapes
that makes art and keeps life bright
red, green and blue
or at least cyan, magenta and yellow

And yet, somehow
you always seem to meet people
made up of the same constituent elements
a beautiful, if sometimes inelegant tapestry of colors
painted out of indigo dyed canvas

that's Jackson Pollack for ya!

There are two kinds of people
those who classify people into multiple kinds of people
and those who don't to

but somehow the shallow monist
who refuses to see divisions
and connections
and relations
misses the giant, unitary mural

and there's a foundational pun in there
if you choose to find it
if not
well
that's a fine choice too.