Double Mnemonic
(√3 = root-three)
If, now and then, you can’t recall
The value of √3
Remember Father Washington,
Who chopped the cherry tree.
This patron of our country, born
Some centuries ere you—
Then add a period, and voila:
1.732
And if, at times, you’re at a loss
Recalling Georgie’s birth,
No more than rote arithmetic
Will tell the number’s worth.
Just quickly calculate √3
That’s all you have to do—
Then drop the period, and voila:
1732
Daniel Galef is a teaching fellow at Florida State University and an associate poetry editor of Able Muse. He haunts the swampland of the Florida Panhandle herding alligators and stopping travellers to ask them riddles. Besides poetry, he also writes fiction, humor, and plays, and last year appeared in the Best Small Fictions anthology. Earlier this year his potential debut collection, Imaginary Sonnets, was a finalist for the Richard Wilbur Prize, so if you know any publishers who can be bribed or blackmailed, please let him know.