Heptagon

it looks perfect

perfectly frightening if you

work outside law enforcement

or are unfamiliar with the

crux of the Australian flag

seven sides of oddity

an obscure perfection

an impossible figure to

construct with compass

and straightedge

less than one percent error

comparing angles and perimeters

to the original, to the real

when the ancient tools are utilized

an approximation of the Platonic form

in other words

a metaphor of a three-strand cord

binding the perfection when a 

marked straightedge is introduced

a neusis to the tradition breakers

a nuisance to the tradition advocates

but perfect or imperfect,

neusis or nuisance,

pragmatism inevitably takes over

that is why three-sixty and ten-eighty

are chosen over the quotient of 

nine-hundred and seven

no remainders,

no oddball angles,

no breaking the aesthetic of

the familiar and mundane

there is no easy tessellation

to mass produce, to work with,

to design with if the builder

chooses the imperfect quotient

it's just a piece of recreational mathematics

we give spiritual significance to

seven may be perfect to some,

may be a divine signature to the

ancients and the contemporaries

but it's cumbersome for today's pragmatism,

today's mass-produced assembly line culture

we like the vertical lines and 

horizontal lines framed by 

right angles

we always have and always will

and so the heptagon will stay on the fringe

gathering dust and will only be exposed to

light by the ones who willingly go there

the few and far between,

the ones on the fringe themselves

some ideas are better left alone

Reviews

[roarke]

ah the world may be flat, but seen from above it's heptagon in contour.
Mondrian would enjoy this piece.

[Kenneth The Poet]

I had to look that name up. Thank you for the vote of confidence.