Mostly, I would tell you,
were I asked, as your
outgoing volunteer tutor
in math, to change nothing.
Not to add, subtract
multiply or divide
a single value.
To let the natural
trajectory of your spirit
chart its course,
without consideration
of great odds you cannot
comprehend yet stacked
against you. Now you can
solve most any math I put forth,
or if not, still you yearn for
understanding without fear
of uncertain theorems.
Your confidence in congruence
not yet calloused, equations
still are balanced, numbers
arranged neatly
on crisp pages;
but along the ray you cast
surely will arise some wrinkles
not explained by math.
Though you are sharp
as a leaded number two,
there will be whole
chapters without quantity
you must claw through
and only you can solve
this proof for you.
I pray the world
you meet is ready
to receive the gifts
you bring, but this world
is often caught in its own
quagmire of derivatives
and seldom can it see
past its own pain
to accept the gifts
we have to give.
Give them exponentially.
All of them, without concern,
and be generous, not to earn
respect or gratitude,
but to know who you are
and where you belong,
at peace with strangers
as in solitude.