Einstein's Brain Poem by Lois Read

I cannot grasp
the enormity of 'billions'
or imagine the color
of a universe as yet unknown.
The brains of those who can, or could
like Einstein, or Leonardo
must house special circuits
unique wiring
inviting them to join
a cosmic quadrille, to dance
with other like-wired minds
in a ballroom beyond the known.

I once heard talk
of dissecting Einstein's brain.
If mine and his lay on the table
side by side
what would they find, I wonder?
What connections or synapses
allowed him
to vault over the known
where mine confine me
to the here and now, limit
my understanding of the abstract
force me to find my answers
close at hand?

When Leonardo looked at water
his mind imagined hydraulics
on a huge scale.
I look at a brown leaf
and see mortality-both, I suppose
part of the program of the universe.
If then my world is one
of modest mathematics
with circumscribed focus
I must discover meaning
with the circuitry that's mine.


my understanding of the abstract