Symmetry

by Rae Spencer

The pathology of symmetry
Is manifest
Even our houses
Stand as soldiers in rank

Modern measurements favor
Twos and fours, especially tens
Unlike the ancients who understood
Threes and twelves

Cemeteries are symbols
Of the precision of death
We plant the dead like our crops
In stately growing rows

Like classroom desks
Neat and orderly
With the expectation
Of predictability

Our greatest mathematicians
In complex equations
Unraveled time and space
According to symmetry

So we define perfection
In pairs, like our eyes
Seeking divinity
Under calibrated lenses

The larger universe
And the smaller infinity
Form a satisfying model
Of repetition

Without man's industry
Chaos would manifest
In tangled lawns
And unkempt thoughts

Which would run wild
With the perversion of asymmetry
And the sudden discovery
That all things are not equal

Rae Spencer is a writer and veterinarian living in Virginia. Her poetry has been published in Melusine, The Driftwood Review, Five Fishes Journal, vox poetica, Triggerfish Critical Review, and elsewhere.