Long division is difficult . . .

Last Monday included a visit with old friends of whom I see too little, Silver Spring artist Mark Behme -- with whom I did some art-poetry collaboration a few years  back -- and Chevy Chase artist-writer-economist-activist, Kyi May Kaung.  After lunch at nearby Mandalay we three walked to Mark's studio and hung out for a while, admiring and talking about his new work.  When I arrived home, I dug out several poems developed from Mark's sculpture -- finding some pieces I'd not thought about for a while.  Here is one of these, a mathy poem that partners with Mark's "Split Tales."

          Which Girl Am I?      by JoAnne Growney

          The girl who’s not forced to divide

          into the good girl and the real one

          is a lucky one.  I was eleven

          when I felt a crack begin.

          In time I fully split — two minds

          took on two heads, two faces,

          two cuts of hair.  Mock feelings

          serve as well as true ones,

          I told myself — but buried parts

          still surface like cicadas in their year.

          Long division is difficult

          and plagued with remainders.

          A girl with two heads

          is like a bird with one wing.