5 by Todd Matson

 

Image | Mart Production

5

 

He didn’t merely claim that 2 + 2 = 5, but that

0 + 4 = 5, 0 + 3 = 5, 1 + 3 = 5 and 1 + 2 = 5. Undeterred,

he unselfconsciously, self-righteously declared 0 + 6, 1 + 6 and

0 + 7 = 5, that it’s all divinely revealed with elegant mathematical precision

not only by addition but subtraction. I can still hear him dogmatically

insisting these truths to be self-evident as he bellowed through a

megaphone weirdly wired to an amplifier on Fifth Street:

 

9 – 2 = 5, 9 – 3 = 5, 8 – 1 = 5, 8 – 2 = 5, 7 – 0 = 5, 7 – 1 = 5

and 6 – 0 = 5.

 

For any scoffers

gathering around, he used

a whiteboard to display that what

is true in the tens, is true in the hundreds,

thousands, millions, billions, trillions and beyond:

As he began to multiply, my attention was suddenly

divided between the divine revelation on his

whiteboard and the stranger next to me

streaming him on YouTube. 

 

If you’ve ever felt like

you fell asleep in second grade and

woke up in college, I pray you can forgive me

for not being able to capture his mathematical proof

sprawling exponentially into the quadrillions, quintillions,

sextillions, septillions, octillions, nonillions and decillions into  the

infinities. Calculus, linear algebra and differential equations have never

been my cup of tea, and my finite capacity for comprehension could

not grasp the cacophony of equations belted out at hypersonic

speed through a megaphone exponentially amplified by

an amplifier, nor could I track the dizzying array

of ever-changing numbers, parentheses

and exponents on his whiteboard.

 

How was I supposed to

know the entire spectacle was

anything other than nonsensical word salad

of a poor soul caught in a tsunami of bipolar mania?

 

Did you catch the news? A team of professors from

Harvard and MIT analyzed the viral video

of the entire episode and found

everything came to 5.

 

5

 

When

rounded off

to the nearest 5.

Author’s Note

The poem is about the dismantling of stereotypes regarding people whom we see as "other," as different than or inferior to ourselves. When we do so, we end up judging the book of a person's life and character by the cover without even bothering to read the pages of someone's life, to see the intelligence, competence, creativity within them. When we do so, we fail to see how they too have been created in the image of God. While none of us are perfect, we are all of infinite worth and have something to offer to others in this world.

© Todd Matson

Todd Matson

Todd Matson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in North Carolina, United States.  His poetry has been published in Salvation South, Agape Review, San Antonio Review, The Brussels Review, and featured in Poetry for Mental Health.  He has also written lyrics for songs recorded by several contemporary Christian music artists.

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