It Helps to Believe It’s Real

Said Tao, the Mozart
Of mathematics,
Favoring Plato’s

Side in the endless
Team-sport rivalry
Between creation

And discovery,
Albeit none too
Emphatically—

It helps to believe
That something’s out there,
Something math describes.

It helps to believe;
It helps math be good.
But math knows nothing

Is out there, nothing
That nothing can go
Into no numbers

Of times—there’s no math
In nothing and none
Without. Real people

Blindfolded, who felt
An elephant’s legs,
Trunk, ears, ribs, and tail,

Could easily tell,
Contra parables,
What sort of creature

They’ve got surrounded.
People aren’t stupid.
Mathematicians,

Notoriously,
Aren’t known to be dim.
If they can’t agree

On the elephant,
That elephant is
Nothing in the room.