by Edward Michael Supranowicz
Grisly Equations
I fall into the low percentages
try to solve algebraic equations
find x or y, know the right answers.
The meadowlarks are the size of ducks
and there’s a dead chick in the brown water—
I get all the questions wrong in an unspoken language—
I’m swimming upriver near a dam
where two women sit sunning, watching their phones.
Numbers mean nothing. I turn back to see
a panda riding a grizzly, getting closer.
They keep asking me the same questions.
I’ve memorized the trig functions & for what?
I try to call my daughters to come see—
we need to get inside. One daughter runs
through trees trying to catch the bus, her long
hair flying behind her. I don’t have a mind
for calculus or geometry.
The grizzly stands upright in a kitchen,
searching for something. Triangles have
a certain elegance. I fill a glass
with crushed ice & Chardonnay. I keep
telling them I don’t know anything.
Anne Graue (she/her) is the author of Full and Plum-Colored Velvet, (Woodley Press) and Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press). Find her work in Sundress Publications’ Best-Dressed and in Poet Lore, Verse Daily, Spoon River Poetry Review, Gargoyle, and elsewhere. She is a poetry editor for The Westchester Review. Instagram and Threads: @amgrauepoet Bluesky: @amgraue.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anne.graue Website: https://www.annegraue.com/.
Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet.