Tree of Knowledge

For my father and my sister and my brother, who teach Chemistry:

In measuring grams and liters, there were two

Numbers at the end of my equation.

The first was measured out to just one place,

The other went to three. My father said,

Ignore those two that don't mean anything:

They'll rob your calculation of the Truth,

And when you come to to put your answer down,

You'll find you've proven nothing reasonable.

But there is still some truth there, I replied.

The numbers are not certain, but they do not lie:

Apples and parts of apples are not apples and oranges.

Ah, yes, he said, but apples and parts of apples are

Still only parts of apples. And when we come to give account,

Apples, not their parts, will give us reckoning.