Poet's Corner

"Geometry"

Rita Dove

Poem explanation

1	I prove a theorem and the house expands:
	the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
	the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
	As the walls clear themselves of everything

5	but transparency, the scent of carnations
	leaves with them. I am out in the open
	and above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
	sunlight glinting where they've intersected.
	They are going to some point true and unproven.

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.