A Disappearing Number Poem by Kishore Asthana

Once upon a time in a theatre far away
Archimedes, Euclid & Newton were acting in a play
Archimides was in a bathtub, watching its level
Euclid was measuring angles with a bevel
And Newton mused under an apple tree
On the beauty of prime numbers three

Hardy and Ramanujam, stalwarts two
Strolled in just then with a problem new
“Zero divided by zero, is it one
Like every other number under the sun? ”

The two were not finished, they had more to say
In their mathematically confusing way,
“Or is it infinity, that numberless number
Like the bill of our last plumber? ”

Archimedes nodded and said, “perhaps”
Euclid looked up from his notes and maps
And Newton, of him, nothing can be said
For an apple had just fallen on his head

All the mathematicians suddenly started
With a crack the earth near them had parted
And quite close to a rabbit hole
The answer lay etched on a paper scroll

As the five moved forward eagerly to read it
A hare thought it had been put there to feed it
It picked up the scroll and disappeared aground
Alas, the answer has never been found

The Director tore his hair, this was not in his play
The script had been hijacked,
by a hare we must say
But loud applause drowned his seething rage
As all mathematicians clapped-
on both sides of the stage