The Death of Archimedes

First, the announcement
Of some incredible measurement to come;
Then the accumulation of evidence,
Seemingly irrelevant, unconnected;
And finally the revelation, the proof,
All the details coalescing
Into diagrams on sand.

The elegant surprise will lead you home,
Part of the mathematics of infinity
That you live each hour, each day.
All men die,
And all men leave something behind.

Love is the quarry, always,
Though hunted under different names;
Wars come and go, states rise and fall,
Cities are stormed, and some taken.
Art and science
Hazard their own approximations
To the cosmos, to beauty.

To tantalise and baffle the unworthy
Yet draw the adept on;
Such is the calculus.
Entering the world,
You have entered the puzzle of puzzles,
Bound to hyperbolas, parabolas and ellipses.

Hoaxes and enigmas
Become you, Archimedes;
Beauty’s play is the joy we all reach for.
The sphere enclosed in a cylinder
Marks your tomb.