By the Numbers

In love's equation, how to value X,

And value you, who are the soul of X, times two?

A double beauty for my poor prospects,

My poor heart's bindings that you so undo—

The angularity of numbers makes the heart

More perfect in meandering, in staying lost,

In valuing the substance sensed, apart,

Unpossessed, untouchable. I know the cost

Of loving thus, an equal sign between

As if our being must have equal weight

As if we could be summed and split, a mean,

As if our crooked measure equalled straight.

For love's no calculation, nor is pain,

If we should come close once, and not again.