Every choice
Is a quiet equation
A sum you never see
Until the answer
Cuts through you
You trade a breath
For a moment
A moment
For a memory
A memory
For the person
You become
The world keeps score
In strange variables
Fear
Desire
The weight of silence
The cost of staying
The cost of leaving
Love divides you
Time subtracts you
Hope multiplies you
Death solves you
And somewhere
In the margins
Of your life
The hidden math
Keeps writing proofs
In shadows
Showing that every gain
Carries a loss
Every light
Casts a price
And every heartbeat
Is an equation
You pay to exist