Long Division

One playful dog and I
divided by

7 hours’ class
plus 3 of practice
plus 2 commutes (rainy, dark, and cold)

equals

me, jogging up the steps
dropping my books at the top

plus Mia
prancing at the open door, ball in her teeth,

over
        joyed.

About this little poem I wrote this poem to demonstrate to seventh graders that a poem and a math equation have a lot in common. An equation is a simple sentence with one verb, "equals," arrived at by reducing and simplifying all the terms to the common denominators.  In a poem, the writer reduces and simplifies all the details of a specific experience until it's expressed by its common denominators -- the details that the common reader will be able to appreciate.

To demonstrate, I showed the students the poem above, after I showed them my free write:

I remember I drove home after seven hours of classes and meetings and answering emails and grading papers and then dealing with two hours of musical rehearsals. Traffic was bad as it was in the morning, and the streets were wet, mist hit the window, and it was already dark. I thought about Mia, my pit bull – mix dog, probably hungry, probably lying on the couch, alone all day long. I worried about whether she was feeling anxious, and I felt guilty that I have to leave her alone so long when we’re doing a musical. I wouldn’t even be able to take her for a walk because of the rain. So when I parked my car in the garage, I pounded up the stairs and burst through the door, and there Mia bowed, stretched, wagged her tail, and dropped her yellow ball at my feet to play fetch.

To put it all in math terms adds a level of fun word play.  For a poem written at a stoplight on the way to school, it strikes me as pretty good.