We’re Some Kind Of Complicated Math Equation

Like the  

Callan–Symanzik equation.

The same equation differing

In the physics world

From the quantum electrodynamics world

And just as compelling...

Discovered independently

By Curtis Callan and Kurt Symanzik.

And while I don’t know shit

About 

Broken Scale Invariance

Quantum Field Theory

Or Small Distance Behavior

I do know a thing or two 

About Asymptotic Freedom

And Perturbation Theory.

As complex and paralyzing

As we are

Point-by-point

Months and years

Of chalk on miles of blackboards

Coffee

And fine wines 

And good cheese

Those mornings of cafe con leche in bed

Working the numbers over and over

Right there

Next to the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

We most assuredly

Will not end up printed

In the Oxford University Press

Nor the Cambridge Journals.

We won’t be lectured about

At Princeton

Or Harvard

Or even whispered of

In their great sacred hallways.

An Ivy-League worthy

Mathematical

Equation

Wrought from broken pencil leads

And worn journals

Rich from the journey

Between

Parameters and unknowns.