One-Degree Culprit

Life’s triangles pencil themselves;

And, variation is a trope abundant

With these gems of triune-sided geometry.

Such triads transcend chapters of a reference book,

Overflowing onto pages paving existence.

Yet, while probability reckons ternions

To take any delectable form desired,

There is one, the holy trinity,

A triangle of sides most symmetrical,

Perfect in shape (and rarely ever come across)-

The equilateral triangle.

Scalene triangles: I am a friend to thee,

More of a friend to him than I am to thee,

While he is less a friend to thee

Than he is a friend to I.

Isosceles triangles: you are my best of best friends,

And she is my best of best friends;

I look to each of you as the disparate and unique,

Remarkably individual persons that you are,

But I cannot forbade the heart’s displacement

Of evened divide, pouring my life’s liquid

Lovingly upon you both.

Nonetheless, and while I dream it untrue,

You to she and she to you

Are not but as close as a man to his everyday stranger

Or that stranger to a stranger’s acquaintance.

Man is always a leg in some triangle,

Albeit situated in a triple all his own-

Oft scalene or isosceles

For equilateral is the bashful brother form.

Words of caution before I proceed:

The leg one plays is delicate in its very plasticity.

This moment, the angle between two legs

May be acute, right, or obtuse;

The next moment… angles have rotated,

And the triangle holding friendship together shifts.

Breakage even finds the one-degree change a culprit.

Hence, the equilateral form is hardest to sustain.

I was lucky; I had stumbled upon the likes

Of a mathematical four-leaved clover-

The unicorn believed to be real

But forever doubted.

I found myself at ease,

A position most energetically favorable-

Happy equilibrium of the body, mind, and soul.

The equilateral triangle, with angles of sixty,

Had love echoing off one leg to another.

Line segments of two are common;

Perfect squares… impossible.

Within the equilateral triangle, life lasted,

And to this day, continues lasting.