Where Do Circles Grow? Poem by Paul Hartal

Are circles real?
Don't be silly, sings a chorus,
of course they are. Circles on a sunny Monday
are as real as on a rainy Tuesday.

Yes, you are right.
My circle, like yours, is a democrat.
The same elegant form for everyone:
a plane figure bounded by a set of points
equidistant from the fixed point of its center.
A genuine silhouette, demonstrable and visible.

Nevertheless, one can argue
that the idea of the circle
is a figment of the imagination,
because as the definition says,
this geometrical concept
is a plane figure, which means that it is
completely flat and two-dimensional.

Now, mind you, in the real world
no surface Is perfectly smooth.
On the microscopic level the surface
of a sheet of flat paper, for example, becomes
rather uneven and bumpy.

Moreover, since we live on this three
(or four) dimensional Earth,
it is impossible for us here to create
a perfectly two dimensional object.

Thus, the circle is a plotless
but intriguing novel
whose protegonists include
the curved Circumference, the straight Diameter
and Radius and the transcendental Pi.