Più di Meno

Here, imaginary is

Only a name, more or less,

For numbers more of the less,

New name started by Descartes.

Mathematics is never

Imaginary, except

In the sense that it’s all been,

And had to be, imagined,

Before any was confirmed

By any of those methods—

Geometric or abstract,

Algebraic or measured

Empirically—that proved

Acceptable. Don’t think that,

When a number is labeled

Imaginary, someone

Managed to imagine it.

It’s a useful notation

For working out equations

And for making predictions

More accurately. Never

Forget making predictions

More accurately is all

The power humans dream of,

Everything you’ve imagined.

Whether undulatory

Or corpuscular, the point

Is, as with babies’ built-in

Expectation that a shape

That goes behind a curtain

Will continue to exist,

Imaginary numbers

Are tricks for navigation

Through a world always changing,

No future possessed except

That changing past you live in.