A Pocketful of Poesy was and is again a Poem-a-Day(-on-Average) Blog! For 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and now for 2017 and going forward, you may expect to see 365 poems every year, 366 for leap years.

but aren't they all random?

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

a fair die

A fair die
can not be bought off
by hot puffed breath
and rubbing of hands.
It's perfectly symmetrical, 
with no unevenness within
in centers of off-center weight 
to pull and shift with favored 
spin that settles any settled way. 
This die's mind was made up 
at birth. They made it and they 
kept the mold. Its sides and 
surfaces are worth precisely 
even facets, squared in perfect 
and indifferent truth: of nothing
said or chosen first. This die 
won't know until the physics 
tell it to, and it won't add 
a hint of lean, subjective
draw. But is that even 
possible? Can such a thing 
be in control? For look! 
Each side has little scoops!
Each dotted with a drop 
of white. But: each side has
a different count. Now: all 
that weighs, however light. 
It must throw off the calculus. 
Or: what was done inside this 
thing to subtly offset the count?
The one side must weigh more 
than six, precisely by the added mass
of five less scooped-dot negatives.
I guess 
so long as we don't know, can't 
calculate upon the fact of tiny this
and missing that: this die is fair. 
Hey wait. 
This surface: is it flat?  

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