Her homework no longer has tidy answers.
The equations hang in the air
with remainders.
Long division without round numbers
is harder to answer.
Dare I tell her that this is like life?
It’s rare to get a day that ends without a remainder.
It’s rare to read a passage in the Bible without
needing to do some erasing and refiguring.
I sit beside her while she snorts and sighs,
heavy breaths convinced she will figure it out.
I know the days are coming–
radical numbers
irrational numbers.
Today we celebrate that long division isn’t always tidy
and embrace the remainder.