The Secret Limit of an Infinite Grid

Anything real includes it all

Combinatorics

Likes to pose problems

As colors on maps

With certain constraints.

Yes, this is a game,

Packing coloring,

And, as with all games,

It’s arbitrary,

Seen from some angles,

Revelatory

Of the way things are,

Seen from another.

Did you know you can

Tile infinity

With a finite set

Of numbers?

Did you know you can

Keep any numbers

From touching themselves

For infinite tiles?

The secret answer

Is fifteen. Fifteen

Will suffice to tile

An infinite grid.

Well, so? Twenty-six

Letters are enough

To tile English words,

Code the whole language.

But are they enough

To code the whole mind

Wandering around

Like a lost pilgrim

In all that language?

Computing won’t help

Here—algorithms

Can’t get real traction.

Birds discuss being

Birds that sing. Yama

Rolls his smoky eyes.

Hillsides of orchids

Extend to the dead.

You can’t calculate

All the things you sign.

But fifteen will tile

The world of the mind.