PETE LEE

THE OLD MATH

she's a knockout, but kind of
old-fashioned in the way
she uses an abacus
to calculate his net worth

as he's stretching his slide rule
to its limits, trying to get it
around the odds of her
impressing the boss

and when they finally do
make love, it sounds like
an antique cash register:
ch-ching, ch-ching

their eyes modestly closed
to hide the dollar signs
 

Pete Lee's former occupations include army sergeant/counterintelligence agent, federal intelligence operations specialist, private investigator, newspaper reporter, and social worker. His poetry has appeared in hundreds of literary journals, including California Quarterly, English Journal, Hawaii Review, and Modern Haiku.