Complex problems defy simple solutions

In math, there is always an answer. There may be several ways of working the problem, but there is only one true solution. In the complex world we live in, we seems to focus on dimensional answers for our layered society. Yet, the most complex problems are usually the ones with the simplest solutions. Copper River Correspondence student C`ebrina D. Tollefsen wrote this poem Dec. 19 between algebra problems.

What and How Questions

Where do you go when the day is long?

What do you hear at the end of a song?

What is the difference between a bird's twitter and tweet?

Where is the silence between a bop and a beat?

What does snow taste like - water or ice?

Why is it "coal" when you're naughty not nice?

How can a flame warm a heart and a hearth?

Have you ever heard of a yard as a garth?

How can Winter "spring," but Spring can't "winter?"

Who makes "mints" and would you call them a "Minter?"

When Christmas comes where does the "Christ" part go?

Why must Santa clash with "Cross" or status "Quo?"

How does it matter - brown, white, yellow, black, or tan?

What makes it "Right" to hurt a "Gay" or "Straight" woman or man?

Why must a "grapple" of discord meet a "gavel" in court?

Why do swine swindlers skip the pokey for a "torte?"

Where do socks, pencils, and gloves disappear?

Who could sing loud enough to crack a glass mirror?

What does the "Midnight Sun" shine, since night looms without the moon?

Why can you "hum" a song, but only "whistle" a tune?

Who is Granny Smith and why does an apple bear her name?

How does a street differ from a lane?

Why can "glasses" be either cups or "specs"?

What is with bike racing's "BMX"?

When is there a rhyme for a reason, or a reason for rhyme?

Where brews worry for clocks, when all we have is time?

C`ebrina D. Tollefsen is a high school student who lives in the Talkeetna area and is enrolled in Copper River Correspondence.