Why Not?

Went to the beach and had lots of fun.
Got burned to a crisp in the glaring sun.
My skin is on fire.
My lips are chapped.
Forgot my sunscreen.
Forgot my cap. 

Got sand in my undies,
Sand in my socks,
Got sand in my hoo-hees.
And stepped on a rock.
Spent hours on castles
The tide washed away.
Got sad-snoozy tired
From swimming all day. 

Then you ripped me away,
Made me get in the car-o.
I threw a big fit.
Left the beach in sorrow.
I don't understand
why we can't go again
Tomorrow.

-B.C. Byron
But I live at the beach now! See the house I made?
Check out my book on Amazon

This poem reminds me so much of when I was a kid. It reminds me of those glorious days when I was so focused on the fun I was having that I could ignore pain, hunger, and all worries. My daughters will stay on the beach digging a hole, piling sand, finding shells, or just pouring water on things for hours and hours. The only thing that breaks their concentration and good mood is the phrase “time to go”. I have to drag their overtired little bodies to the car screaming and force a seat belt on.

When I was small, it was playing outside in the snow. I would build a huge snow fort for most of the day. I hardly noticed my windburned cheeks and the fact that my feet had turned into frozen bricks inside my boots. But oh, how it burned when I came into the warm house for dinner. My skin was turned to fire. I’m lucky I never lost any toes or fingers to frostbite. The pain was only noticeable when the fun had stopped. Then right after dinner, and after my moaning and complaining about burning digits, I went right back outside for more snow time.

Infinity

If you think too hard about infinity,
You may lose your last bit of sanity.
Come on, just how big CAN it be?

Take all of the stars plus the sand at the sea,
Then add all the atoms in both you and me.
You aren't there yet,
But you're starting to see
The hugeness of infinity.

It's all the tomorrows
and all the befores.
It's a lot MORE than more,
And then, even more.
If you try to count it,
You won't just be bored,
Your mouth will go dry,
And the sweat will pour,
And you'll die of hunger or thirst, for sure.
'Cause infinity's longer than lines at the stores,
In all of the countries in all of the world.
It's more than the distance to planet Glor,
More than the weight of all dinosaurs.
Every number dries up on infinity's shore.
It's bigger and longer and older and further and...
Snnnnoooooore!

-B.C. Byron
Just a few bazillion more donuts and I’ll have infinity
Check out my book on Amazon

I get pretty excited about math, especially the number infinity. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for numbers. If you’re like me, though, the first time you learn a cool math concept you stay up all night thinking about it and all day telling your friends. I’ve ruined many dinner parties talking about Einstein’s relativity and statistics. But really, I think I just need to invite more nerds to my dinner parties. If you have an affinity for infinite and really get into math in general, I’m having a barbecue next Friday. We can estimate how many molecules are in our hamburgers and calculate the probability that I’ll burn them on the grill. While we’re munching burgers, we can pass the time with light conversation about the exact amount of time it would take to travel to the star Alpha Centauri using different rocket propulsion methods. For dessert, I’ll be serving PI.

Even math can inspire poetry. Branch outside of nature, love, and sadness when writing poems. Look around you, find something you enjoy or just something weird that happened that day and start your poem now. Everything is a poem if you think about it.