Shark Geometry

by Anastasia Andersen

_

Numbers are useless
for the angles that bang around the brain

stretch for this bad birth
of triangles.

Instead your mind wants to shape the razor
to a fin
or the undeviating

abyssal black
to just a circle,
a doll’s eye.

The ocean as width
and night as length

you think your mind would calculate

every row of triangles
how the isosceles body gapes—

but it can only name shapes:

circle moon, circle eye,
triangle, triangle

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Anastasia Andersen is currently in the University of New Mexico MFA Creative Writing Program. She teaches poetry workshops through the University’s Continuing Education program.  Previous publications include Blue Mesa, Heavy Bear, and Puerto del Sol. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.