Two Poems: Attention Please and Say What?

Attention Please

A woman sat next to me
she wore a ninja costume
her face was covered completely
and she spoke in her sweet Anglo-Indian
accent

It made me wonder of --
the color of her eyes
the tone of her skin
the shape of her lips, which, incidentally,
led me to a question --

Is her veil drawing too much attention?

Her number is finally called

She heads for the photo stand
with sheets in her gloved hands
accompanied by her brothers
(I guessed)

Her photo is going to be taken
like everyone else but she could tell
that everyone now
was paying full attention
as the sheets are drawn to form a
cubicle around the photo stand
and she sits there to reveal her
face, finally

Her brothers are protecting her dignity with sheets
while their eyes pry for other dignities that
seemed to be roaming around naked
waiting for their turn
irony had never looked so good

'Woman'
People are talking about you
they are wondering about you
and I am wondering about the man
the photographer inside
the cubicle taking your picture
and the bliss he must be going through
for being the only stranger to see you
through the eyes of his camera

And I’m thinking, this could be
infidelity. I mean, she is not supposed
to be
looked upon by strangers
but it seems she had no choice
but to give in. She’s exposed,
now he knows, what she looks
like. And in my fury, I utter:

'Take off your veil, woman!
you are drawing too much attention.
Can you veil yourself without the veil?
Reveal without being revealed?'

Take off your veil, woman,
it only looks like a costume
meant to draw attention and if I know
correctly, attention is not
what you came here for


Say What?

Cesare Ripa thought
science is a woman.
He pictured her holding an appearance
leading to the knowledge of essences,
and a triangle
representative of
the perfect number.

He takes pride-
in the tools of Hypatia
in the programming genius of Ada of Lovelace.

He uses them
to carve her on coins for Nobel’s laureates.
He uses them
to demonstrate his expertise and skills.

There’s a problem in your language sir
when you say, "Man is perfect" and
Sofia Kovalevskaya solved
the most difficult problems
in silence.

Maria is Italian for Mary and you
worship her, don’t you?
My, oh my!
why, there is a witch appended
to the curve of Agnesi. Or is it
a twist in your perception, sir?

Newton and Leibnitz did not speak
French and Emilie du Chatelet
translated, commented, and critiqued them
to propagate science
to a larger audience.
She did not go to college for mathematics or physics,
by the way.

And he says, "You are right"
to the woman sitting next to him.
How openly it reveals the fallacies
of his perception.

"Man is perfect", undoubtedly, sir.
The phrase looks good in the museum
where people go
to see
to learn from the language of history
and history
speaks for itself.