Mathematician Watching the Moths at an All-Night Gas StationAuthor(s): Paul McCormickSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Winter, 2005/2006), p. 124Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20152097 .

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Mathematician Watching the Moths at an

All-Night Gas Station

No happenstance us being here beneath the lamps.

You mistake this outpost for the moon,

I come to plot the trajectory of your error.

It's that simple.

And yet, night after night I still know more of match smoke than of how you go.

It's the approximations that get me?

I'd say loneliness is about a 7 out of 10,

Maybe a little higher after the rain.

Well, you know about the rain.

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