Rachel Hyman

Axioms

1. Given two points there is an interval that joins them.

Space accelerates as scales not vectors,

fish not anvils, and is unaimed.

When I look into your pupils

there are blind spots in my vision.

Encountering the whites of your eyes

determines nature of system

Giant squid, quarks, leptons,

Mandala—almonds around icons—shapes of orbit

Inscribed within a sphere

(Riemannian geometry guarantees collision.)

2. An interval can be prolonged indefinitely.

Newton claims infinite universe is unstable.

His laws fail as things approach C, get

too fast, too big, too small

Mapped domain of applicability (his collarbones,

forearms, the wrinkles next to his eyes)

Weight of atmosphere

(parrots and snowflakes loom above)

3. A circle can be constructed when its center and

a point on it are given.

projectors and slide shows.

meta-questions (does he swallow at the sight of me)

useless disciplines. Keep talking moonshine

the distance between blind spots is a line I do not cross.

In closed space, forms swell.

Form numbers like 4.7 billion

The age of this third planet

The third letter is speed of light

I remember, I remember, to tell him my name.

4. All right angles are equal

I could footnote you but

chalk board remarks like inscriptions

subsist within wordless orbs of observation.

The florescent light distancing our eyelashes

Richochets at 3 × 108

Eroticism of night sky—boundless.

We speed towards solar gravitational center

One hundred thousand miles per hour

I search pockets for a pen.

The sun collapses, does not burn.

5. Through a point outside a straight line, one and

only one parallel line can be drawn to the first line.

The convergence between cosmology and particle physics

is a seven digit equation I scribble on paper

Underneath my six figure name.

If—to become as quarks are:

Strange and charmed

All top and bottom

Up and down

I must follow chain reactions to collide

the pin points of your pupils with mine.

Then—I admit—my ability to speak is lead isotopes

breaking down

as the laws of physics at the sight of you—

try not to consider possibilities of hyperbolic

space where lines diverge. Instead,

leave my phone number, a postulate in your palm.