Radical 2 in 60 seconds

Radical 2 in 60 seconds

Deep in the bowels of the Collection

Beneath the stars and stripes

Another dynasty stirs and breathes

A City State, an empire brutal, the largest city and holy place.

Babylon whispers and scholars debate,

Shifting sands under stars in a desert sky.

Imperial jewels glint, tangled in jet black hair

That drapes over royal shoulders.

Others herd sheep or offer them up to the sky.

Grain merchants sweat, beads that gleam against a wet brow

and count in the sacks to pay the man.

Some measure the heavens, others pore over maps

Eagerly jabbing with slimy finger where war and destruction will prosper.

In the cool the Curator touches the disc.

Sexagesimal numeral system still measuring angles

And co-ordinates across similar states that differ

For one did not possess a zero whilst the other

Sprang out the ground, swirling in smoke and tearful pain.

The tablet is small and crude to the eye

But concealed from those who glance briefly

And shy away, are secrets that reveal themselves

To the guardian of number from Babylon to tomorrow.

Already possessing an algorithm seeking out approximations

To the square root of 2, a radical.

Calculating, quantifying with beautiful art, yet

The origins of mathematical reasoning held in his hand

The curator closes his eyes and goes back in time.

Another is adding and taking away from the conquered,

Vying for control, demanding tribute and wealth,

Homage and taxes. Life and Death.

And in his hand he holds the small brown disc from the beginnings of time

And across time the golden disc burns down over a previous war crime.

The conquest of mathematics, sequences of events, number so pure

Is one side of the coin, another empowers an Empire to procure.

The armies are on the move, clanking forward between the two rivers

The calculations are done, logistics re-checked, the mathematics delivers.


By Linda Prince