Topics for dinner conversation
(from Fibonacci 1202 by Mario Merz)


1: the man is not there thinking

can I paint myself with numbers
create if not perfect determinism at least

a probability distribution that in trying
to replicate our humanity we have

2: the woman waiting for her father

created clockwork and computation
struggle for order in a system

working to maximize entropy
always we try to justify

3: the man appears, but the woman has gone missing

this mistake by describing
it to the last decimal

place where the exponential growth of dinner
conversation is no accident, it was foretold as

5: she returns, but he turns his head

by Feynman and Fibonacci after
every hour a silence occurs
despite the forceful hospitality

8: her friend appears, an order

of imported Italian wine

13: a man sits by the first man

21: they do not interest each other

34: no one sits alone anymore

55: the room is full and so are the people

89: Neon

I have always liked addition better
than subtraction
aren’t letters just variable numbers
aren’t people just variable letters


ATCG QED