Love Poem: School Time Crush
Juliet Ligon Avatar
Written by: Juliet Ligon

School Time Crush

Dear strong, mysterious Mr. Richter,
I have adored you all semester.

It's all about the way you say "cosign"
and the command you give to busy equations.
You keep those numbers all in line,
as if any one could give dissuasions.

With exponent passion you draw me in,
a mathematician first, then a teacher.
Each number's a friend, a neighbor, a kin.
Each student is a math-munching creature.

You couple denominators, strong and alike,
a prismic marriage of commonality,
then suddenly you divide them like
a Shakespearean tragedy.

Then you flip-flop like common weather,
and in a calm numerical tangent,
you bring those digits back together 
like a quadrilateral sonnet.

Your rhombus eyes, like tigers animate
when you say the word "perpendicular."
Could you say you'd ask me for a date,
anywhere logarithmic, but I'm not particular.

Take me away on a coordinate plane,
parallel to an median integer
with stem-and-leaf plot as the terrain,
and a commutative property perimeter.

I can offer admiration and a laugh,
just teach me how to use a protractor.
Of all the variables on a bar graph,
you are the greatest common factor.