On the Point of Vanishing
- Richard Mather
- Jul 26
- 1 min read
Updated: Jul 28

On the Point of Vanishing
Cogito ergo ends with a sum
beyond my reckoning:
Thoughts add up
and multiply
exponentially like numbers.
I must have miscalculated.
It’s what happens
when you cannot count
on your own mind
to make sense of the world.
This time I’ll square the root -
100,000 to 316 to 18 to 4 to 2 to 1.4 to 1.2 to 1.1 to 1 -
and keep on subtracting 1 to 0.5 to 0.1 …
I arrive at a bare fraction
of a thought,
a mere variable of an idea,
a qualitative zero -
a difference on the point of vanishing, the ghost
of a departed quantity.
If error goes to infinity,
and peace tends towards zero,
then it’s better to think almost nothing
(in my estimation).