Fractions

perhaps the lesson of mathematics
     is that we cannot serve two masters
we are either on the side of humanity
     or politics
     or religion 
          or what we like to eat
          or who we like to fuck
     or whatever else
            divides us
but we can't have it both ways
     no matter how hard
     we try
            unless we string ourselves out
            behind a decimal
            that marks the difference
            between what's whole
                and what's not
for it's universal
     that in our divisions
     we necessarily lose that which unites us
     losing the common denominator of 1
          as people
     for the uncommon denominators
          of all the other stuff
               that divides
     necessarily diminishing the number 
               that rests on top
     when the division 
               is by anything 
                    other than 1

but mathematics tells us
     for this to work
it must be numerator
     and denominator
not dividend
     and divisor
though it seems like
     it's all the same goddamned thing
with the only things that change
     being the positions of the numbers
and the symbols that separate them

but it's tricky
     cause a decimal less than 1
         divided by an even smaller decimal
             leads to a larger outcome 
but decimals break the rules for fractions
     though they're separate ways of expressing
                6/10 and 0.6
                   essentially the same goddamned
                          thing
          but they are distinct expressions
                   just look
               and don't get confused

for division
     by anything 
        other than 1
           in fractional math
                  with its rule of wholes
               reduces the nominator
                  unless it's something
                     less than 1
                           which breaches the rules of
                               fractions
                        are permitted elsewhere
                        where something of a value
                            less than 1
                            numbers that appear large
                                trailing a decimal point
                                     are free to copulate
                                          and create
                                     beautiful offspring
                                     far more complex than simple
                                          wholes
                        decimals complicated enough to copulate
                             with their kind
                             as well as wholes
                             under the right conditions
                but it's just an illusion
                    for any string
                        proceeding the decimal
                            no matter how long
                    has less value than 1
                            necessarily corrupt
                                 as the divisor
                            like creating a 40 story tower
                                 on a framework
                                      of sticks

 divisions of ourselves
    abstractions
         like a drawing
                painting
                photograph
         of a cup
         an abstraction
                that can't hold water
                    that
                even if it could
         would rather be filled
                with the muck
         of all its dividers
                than anything pure

and even division by zero won't work
     since division by zero
          is undefined
               leaving us
                    nothing 

there are those who hate what we are
     and hate what they are
          who might advocate division by zero
               to define as as something else
                   that has no definition
     but it seems we're good enough
           as numerators
                as whole numbers 
                so long as we don't spoil our wholes
                     by cashing out our common denominators
                          in exchange
                              for handfuls
                                    of cheap trinkets