Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

Sudoku with Albert Einstein

I bring a pencil. He brings – a pen.
I roll my eyes. He raises an eyebrow.
I write small numbers in the corners.
He boldly writes large in the middle
of the square!

I think quietly, counting in my head.
He talks out loud while giggling!
I look up, and down the entire square,
then the line, focusing
on every single possibility!
He meanders around the board
while looking at other
boards on the page
writing in numerous places.

I huff, and sigh, and grind – my teeth!
He sips iced tea and eats a cookie lazily
views the puzzle while yawning.
I use time and space to look
at every scenario possible
to come up with nothing!

He is still eating the damn
cookie. The iced tea has made a ring
on the table and he’s babbling
about condensation
and minutes and ice cube ratios

and…I am trying to fucking concentrate!
I mean is it the 9 or the 6 or the 1 but which
one for fuck sake
is he going to finish the crunchy, crispy
ginger snap while sipping and slurping
and crunching ice?

He offers me one; I look up
he says, Infused with cannabis,
gives a Cheshire grin!
I take one, enjoy a large bite, crunch,
zing start to giggle as he looks straight
into my eyes
and says I never cared for Sudoku
but I love these cookies
then sticks
out his tongue. We laugh, forgetting
the game.

 

Heather Pease lives in Southern California. She hosts OC Speakeasy, a Poetry Event at House of Blues. “I give a loud voice to what has been silenced by removing shame. As a survivor of assault, my hope is my words shimmer and resonate as I expose the humanity of being flawed, addressing stigmatizations with blunt, riveting force, where nobody gets off the hook.”

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore.