love one a number

social pain is perceived
as isolation that feels
lonely is lonely

western countries contribute
to collective contagion
leading to loss

ask questions such as
the differences in height
as observational errors

or why two times two
is not impossible to predict
as a perfectly random event

an accident contacting
electricity is leisure related
and biting the tongue

sometimes the interaction
of multiple failures
within a complex system

causes one to drift
causes many layers
of defense causes

holes as weakness
a percolation theory
where one exists

not as an infinite open
cluster a manifold lie
or group of dimensions

one and two there are
fifty eight songs alone
with lyrics called you

Rebbecca Brown is the author of the novel They Become Her (What Books Press 2014) and the lyrical prose collection Mouth Trap (Arc Pair Press 2018). Her work has appeared in print and online journals such as American Literary Review, Confrontation, Requited, Masque and Spectacle, Eclipse, The Turnip Truck(s) and Miracle Monocle (among others). She currently lives in Los Angeles and teaches in the College of Creative Studies at UCSB.