Joseph Wang and Joeph Rafael have received honorable mentions for their poems in the AMS Math Poetry Contest! Please enjoy their work.
The Man in Monte Carlo
by Joseph Wang
I met one in Monte Carlo,
whose losses caused him no sorrow.
“I’ve lost ten times, you see,
so soon, a winner I’ll be.
Surely, I’ll win tomorrow.”
I took him on a random walk,
and about his logic, he'd talk.
“Murphy’s Law does normally dictate,
the games will eventually rebate.”
At his reasoning, I’d only gawk.
And to his own chagrin,
he explained once again,
That he was quite optimistic
due to the well known statistic,
that “99% of proud gamblers win.”
I could no longer support his fallacies,
nor his flawed analyses.
So I left him with a proposition:
“To improve your condition,
read more on probabilities.”
Undefinition (Zero By Zero)
by Joeph Rafael
delicately, i’ve matched my numerator and denominator
yet, i am not some one like you nor any one of you
i am of zeros too, consuming all i touch
like midas alone with his gold, but no gold
just left wishing that in my own embrace i too could join you all
maybe i grew greedily, headed towards the heavens
until i reached your limit and you couldn’t conceive me at all
erecting an altar between each asymptote
but i am defined as undefined, not never considered
defined to be free, left to the imagination
joining others fabled and formless
take me to be your millennium prize
sitting like the pot of at the end of a rainbow
optimistic you'll find me one day
take me to be the water in a creek where your children play
squeezing through the pebbles they’ve built up into dams
drifting into the sea with nothing left to contain me
take me to be the color of a summer’s warm breeze
or the smell of the gale that had coaxed that branch to lay at your feet
wonder but not weep for you’ve known me in all but name