is advice I received from a colleague
with an incongruous ponytail
who once gave his students a test
with only one problem: Define Mathematics.
He looked wistful as he relayed
their consternation and befuddlement
over a bowl of forlorn noodles
in the school cafeteria. When asked
how he’d respond, he shrugged
and said, “The search for patterns.”
“That’s nice,” I said, then repeated
the phrase, “The search for patterns.”
Don't Leave a Good Time Looking for a Good Time
Michael Bazzett
Michael Bazzett’s fourth collection of poems, The Echo Chamber, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2021. His work has appeared in The Sun, the American Poetry Review, the Iowa Review, Threepenny Review, and Ploughshares, and his verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh (Milkweed 2018), was longlisted for the National Translation Award as well as named one of 2018’s ten best books of poetry by the New York Times.