while considering the origins of the self-replicating inflationary universe,
the mathematician finds he cannot keep his mind on the geometry of scalar fields
and off the topology of last night’s waitress
in particular, with regard to the way in which she is identical
to his coffee cup, the contents of which he sips while wondering
if “identical with” is perhaps not the more correct form
(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
i came home from work one night
and found my girlfriend and my
roommate in bed together
i paused a moment while he rolled over and said
oh jesus
and she lay there pulling the covers up and saying nothing
so i said
let me join you
and kicking off my shoes
climbed in with them
she was her usual, charming and beautiful
but i had my eye on him
(Published in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Vol. 2, Issue 2, August 2009; copyright 2009, 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
“It’s really, really damaging to a person to know secrets that potentially are going to kill people and then not to be able to do anything on it.” – Frances Haugen, Interview, November 22, 2021, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol