MATH CLASS MADE ME NERVOUS

by Nancy Byrne Iannucci

                                                for Mr. Gigliotti

except for one, 
eleventh grade, Sequential III,
with Mr. G.
 
He looked like Steven Spielberg 
with a pocket protector and chalk in hand,
a math cult leader who converted
the most atheist of math students
into a devout follower. 
 
It all made sense in his class:
Life and its angled connectivity.
It was like having a near-death experience
for fifty minutes each day.
 
He revealed math’s sacred secrets
in ways only a child could comprehend.
He took away what I hated most:
The stifled, confined view of numbers
and showed me what it was:
 a universal balance of unity and truth. 
 
Thirty-five years later,
in a world that seems like there’s no sequence at all,
we walked and slept through 9/16/25,*
the day Pythagoras was Superman,
hauling the globe back to harmony.
 
At the very least, 
I thought of Mr. G,
and how he taught me to see.

* First, "all three of the entries in that date are perfect squares—and what I mean by that is 9 is equal to 32, 16 is equal to 42, and 25 is equal to 52," says Colin Adams, a mathematician at Williams College who was first tipped off about today's special qualities during a meeting with his former student, Jake Malarkey.

  Next, those perfect squares come from consecutive numbers—three, four, and five.

  But perhaps most special of all is that three, four, and five are an example of what's called a Pythagorean triple.

  "And what that means," explains Adams, "is that if I take the sum of the squares of the first two numbers, 32 + 42, which is 9 + 16… is equal to 25, which is 52, so 32 + 42 = 52."

  This is the Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2. "And that in fact is the most famous theorem in all of mathematics," says Adams.  —NPR, September 16, 2025

 

Nancy Byrne Iannucci is a librarian and poet who resides in Troy, NY, with her two cats: Nash and Emily Dickinson.  THRUSH Poetry Journal, Allegro Poetry Magazine, Eunoia, Maudlin House, San Pedro River Review, 34 Orchard, Bending Genres, and Typehouse are some places you will find her. She is the author of four chapbooks: Temptation of Wood (Nixes Mate Review, 2018), Goblin Fruit (Impspired, 2021), Primitive Prayer (Plan B Press, fall 2022), and Hummingbirds and Cigarettes (Bottlecap Press, 2024). Instagram: @nancybyrneiannucci