I
The triangular atom
composing all rectilinear surfaces.
Earth and water are made of triangles.
Fire and air, of smaller triangles.
II
Fire cuts by the sharpness
of its angles and sides.
You would say it heats up.
III
Pain is the point of a triangle.
It needles its way into us
sometimes imperceptibly.
IV
Pleasure is two triangles sharing a side,
forming the shape of a house.
V
A man and a woman and a child are a triangle.
VI
The greatest pleasure is the hypotenuse.
Twice that pleasure is equal to the sum
of the squared pleasures of the other two sides.
VII
The equilateral is the most beautiful
of triangles. All three sides in harmony
like the image of a perfect triangle.
VIII
Green isosceles triangles cover the hillside.
The whole hillside is freckled with them.
IX
It is the inequality
of triangles
that desires uniformity.
X
The beauty of the circle
is the beauty of an infinity
of triangles.
R. Charboneau