poem v.

today i went to visit my old tutor from high school

she said,
remember that time you wrote in your SAT essay that ben franklin invented the light bulb?

we took 32 practice tests together and then you wrote that in the real thing
when she laughed, i saw her eyes were narrower, cheeks lined.

i tell all my students that story.
...oh good.

she held her hand up like a diagonal line.
remember slope?
she said.

i don't think i...

i know, she said. it's like you've never walked a hill in your life.
your brain just never captured it, you could never
make loops
out of thin air.
the only other student whose brain just couldn't get it was a synesthete.

i remember, i said, we met here one day
and she said my name was a yawning purple in her mouth.
she couldn't do math
because

it has no color.