Algebra

Blank sheet of paper
slowly filling up
not with words-
save for the random scrawled radius-
but numbers and intricate patterns
where a squiggly table
equals 3.14 and letters
are masquerading numbers
but you unknowingly fit a piece
in the wrong spot
so you must work backwards
and untangle your pattern
and fix it
people around me hate it, but
there's a strange and simple
beauty in getting three
seemingly random statements
and getting three exact numbers
out if you know how to spiderweb
them together so three unknowns
become three answers
scrawled number make up
a paradoxic neat pattern
all threaded together
to get answers to problems
that everyone else is
solving at the same time
until the bell rings
and we leave the numbers
back in math class