Section 3.5, #41

posted Jun 23, 2009

I. Problem:

Two trains, beginning in the same city,
leave the station at seven in the evening.
One train travels at 25 miles per hour,
the other train races under shadow of
billions of songbirds
as they separate.
If velocity remains constant,
a) formulate distance and b) find relative speed.

II. Solution:

a) Identify the problem, look at the distant numbers.
Birds heading in groups can be defined
as distance divided by time.
And, with a single glance, we know both trains
are the muscles used for flight. Isolate
that data. When your lover first crossed
the boarding platform,
you could not understand her declination.
You rolled your neck, slept with your head
between your feet, bored yourself
with celestial contemplation.
Now, you are trained in the art
of solitude, of sleepless hours.
Hearing two passenger cars join and then separate,
the metal clanking, punctuating the evening, rousing
flocks of birds,
you need not think how it would have woken
your lover, how it has been almost two weeks
since she got on that train.

b) You do not know
the second train’s flyway, or your lover’s.
That she left at twilight, this is proven;
that her gaze was trained on a mountain range in the distance –
a known variable.  As for stellar and magnetic inclination,
the data is insufficient.
Instead, diagram and solve
the way her face hovered
in the window of the train,
how it blurred,
became a skyline in the distance,
its buildings shimmery
and indiscernible, its base
glittering
with the bodies of birds.

Sarah Bodeau is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She spends a good portion of her online time browsing Adopt-a-Pet.com, but can only afford houseplants. She lives and works in Minneapolis.