The law of cosines states that
the square of any side of a stick
of licorice can be recast as an au-
bergine whose rhyming structure
follows that of a pantoum or, oc-
casionally presents its entirety as
if it were a ballade conceived by
François Villon. “But where are

the snows of yesteryear?” you
might ask, only to realize a lick of
licorice later that they can be black
as often as they are white, depen-
ding on the relationship between 
their sides.

…

Mark Young was born in Aotearoa New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for over sixty-five years, & is the author of around seventy-five books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, non-fiction, & art history. His most recent books are Some Unrecorded Voyages of Vasco da Gama, from Otoliths, Home Hill, Australia; the downloadable pdf, Closed Environment, from Neo-Mimeo Editions, Nualláin House, Monte Rio, California; & The Complete Post Person Poems, from Sandy Press, Santa Barbara, California, all published in March, 2025.