Mathematics

I have four friends

sixteen acquaintances

one wife

two girlfriends

and a three legged mistress

in my fridge

is a six pack

there are twelve cubes in the ice box

and the whiskey is immeasurable

life

suspended in basic mathematics

is how much or how many

you can consume

in a lifetime

and if I knew more

maybe in a few others

but all the mathematics

is never enough

to fill that hole in my heart

the one that

is indiscriminate

there is no math there

just some faces

I can’t count how many

but they all look familiar in an unfamiliar way

like a torn down building

in old Delhi

and in those unfamiliar faces

there is one that looks like mine

an alien from twenty years ago

young, free and wild

in all unimaginable ways

imprinted

upon the immeasurable whiskey

without censure

and with pride

the one that

is the most intoxicating.