The Keystone Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

The Aztecs never conquered the keystone
Rather than the lintel
To bridge a gap to ensure that the load
Would be borne by two supporting sides.
And their blind sight continues with today's scientists and engineers
Who deign to think of information
Only in a linear fashion
(Excepting calculation with logarithms
As done by slide-rule, tables or some other trick.)

Think of the game of tic-tac-toe with its x's and o's
No surprises here for the response must follow it is clear
Or in the digital age in which we live
It's again the space that is filled or clear
So that these very words I type
Are bound to be recorded, bit by byte.

Is there another way?
One which will emerge some day
That will permit a leap away from convention
And permit a form of suspension
When two ends are known and can support
The arch that will give repartee
Between sides that have no other way
Of extending thought and processes beyond their sway.

Or is it just another fixation
On ways of suspension
For it is known that an arch is stronger still
Than a linear form bearing weight at will
One need only look at a semi-tractor trailer
That when empty - the bed has a gentle arch
But under compression by an added load as such
Causes the bed to flatten out
With the steel in compression – carries the load about
It's just another form of a keystone arch
That lends strength (and you can watch!)

Compression is much the stronger than
Extension, when supporting a span.
So can it be with bits and bytes
There's much more there than what a computer writes
In its binary code
Of one or naught.

For more on binary codes and such: www.math.grin.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/152/97F/Readings/student-binary
by Christine R. Wright and Samuel A. Rebelsky



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