Tale #88: To Ponder Infinity

There lived an expansionist king, whose policies of growth ensured his kingdom doubled in reach every single year of his reign.

In the 64th year of his rule, having seen the extent of his domain grow from the single planet of his birth to the 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 planets of its current jurisdiction, he called upon his most trusted advisor, and asked her how many more years would it take until he commanded power over the whole infinite expanse of the limitless universe in which they lived. For he wished one day to retire, and he wondered how many more years he needed to remain upon the throne before his dream of complete dominion over all was achieved.

“Infinity cannot be reached by multiplication, no matter how vast in scope the numbers are,” she advised. “So you could reign forever, less a day, and still not achieve your dream of an infinite kingdom.”

The King bade his advisor farewell, for he wished for solitude in which to ponder her words. He sat on his throne and spent the night contemplating the nature of the infinite. The King soon went mad, and died.

__________

Notes:

1. Written on 1st April, 2019

loop

I’m using the internet
because I can’t sleep
and I can’t sleep
because I’m using the internet

caught
in a refresh cycle
updating
every
page
in the hope that something has changed
but nothing has

and when something is looked at this closely
this constantly
the illusion is created
that nothing ever does
nor ever will

__________

Notes:

1. Written in early 2018
2. But could really have been written at any point
3. in the 21st century

three untitled poems

1.

I like
the transformative properties
of snow

the way
it obliterates
the boundary lines
we’ve laid down

road and pavement
path to garden
field from wood

and the way
it allows me to imagine
(in the hour or two before it melts
beneath the afternoon sun)
a world more open
than our own

 
2.

All that is left now
is the absence of it

the outline
of where it once stood

the memory
of what it once was

the last few mounds of rubble
that no one’s found the time
to sweep away

3.

These waves have been crashing
on indistinguishable shores
for a billion years
and will
for four billion more

__________

Notes:

1. Written in early 2018 sometime
2. Or maybe late 2017