Two Poems by Steve Brightman

Mathematics Is A Losing Game

Whatever
the proper

length of time
is for carrying

the weight of
another’s sins is.

You don’t need
a numerator

or a divisor
to know this is

the answer
to the ugliest

riddle the world
has to offer.

____________

 

Were They Standing Next To Each Other, Light From The Sun Would Have Hit Them At The Exact Same Second

I read tonight
that Jean-Paul Sartre
and Ariana Grande
are the same height,
exactly five feet
from the surface
of the earth and
I was going to write
a poem about one
of the houses
I grew up in, but I’ll
be damned if this
isn’t a poem itself.