Einstein

by Katherine O'Brien
Portland, Maine
The Mathematics Teacher
April 1968




His first day at Princeton, the legend goes,
he went for a stroll (in his rumpled clothes).
He entered a coffee shop -- moment of doubt --
then climbed on a stool and looked about.
Beside him, a frosh, likewise strange and alone,
consoling himself with an ice cream cone.

Now Einstein's glee
was plain to see
at the sight of the cone with the sphere on top
(in the hand of a frosh in a sandwich shop)
and -- oh incredible --
completely edible!

He smiled at the frosh, then the waiter came,
and Einstein gestured he'd like the same,
and they sat there nibbling, suddenly kin,
with no common language to verbalize in.
But foreign no longer, no longer alone,
with the fellowship bond of an ice cream cone.







Send any comments or questions to: David Pleacher