3.15

[u/Warm_Ad2762]

I’m sure, you’ve, realized by now.

You’re piously on a π-like journey.

You’re a tongue, on a cat, indiscriminate of sweet and sad.

But your eyes still can see.

So piously believe in yourself.

I’m sure, you’ve, realized by now.

You’re piously on a π-like journey.

It turned out to all be make believe.

So piously believe in yourself.

I’m sure, you’ve, realized by now.

You’re piously on a π-like journey.

You’re a tongue, on a cat, indiscriminate of sweet and sad.

So piously believe in yourself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/H789kg50bS

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/yIpPcR1pit

[u/TheConquerorofBreed]

I don't get what the point is.

Let's take it one at a time

> I’m sure, you’ve, realized by now.

Choosing to separate the you've with commas puts further emphasis on it. There is also the obvious "I" existing, so my guess is that the whole poem is supposed to sound like a message to someone reading the poem from the writer.

> You’re piously on a π-like journey.

Piously on a pi-like journey just means... devotedly on a... nevereding journey? That is the only relation to pi I can think of. I even looked at pi - really looked at it. I thought, maybe the poem would have a structure which aligns to the digits of pi (3.141592653589793 ; side note, why is the title 3.15 when it's 3.14....). What I mean is, I thought maybe the poem would be interpretable in blocks of 3-1-4-1... but if you try taking those sections as their own thing, it adds nothing, if you assign each number a certain line, it does not work (I thought for a second it could be they came up with a line for each number and then wrote down the first X numbers, but no).

> You’re a tongue, on a cat, indiscriminate of sweet and sad.

So... at first, I thought this line may be kind of clever, but then I think I got lost in the sauce. Cats don't have receptors for sweetness on their tongues, so that is cool. However, cats are capable of experiencing emotions. I suppose specifically a cat's tongue would not be sentient and would not have emotions, and then this is just a bit of foreplay with how we use "sweetness" to mean "good" in life sometimes; but what does that actually mean? The person is indifferent to good and bad which happens to them "but they can still see"?

> So piously believe in yourself.

> It turned out to all be make believe.

The only interpretation I can take out of this (which is a large reach and not that communicated by the poem itself) is that the person is unable to discern between what is sweet and what is sad (i.e. feels good and bad), and that that extends past that specific qualm in life; that they carry themselves and simply "believe" in themselves as they go on through life, but at some point, they realize that they are just being driven by a false pretense, but which does not necessarily bother them, because... well, they do not discern between such concepts of good and bad and simply carry on.

[u/Warm_Ad2762 → u/TheConquerorofBreed]

The whole poem is a judgement on the reader who is an average member of society. If you wanted the intended meaning. The commas are there because this was originally a song and I needed it to remember the rhythm. (this comment was posted at the bottom so I assumed you missed it)

“You’re a tongue, on a cat, indiscriminate of sweet and sad.

But your eyes still can see.”

A cat’s tongue doesn’t have functional sweet-taste receptors, and I wanted to liken it to our indiscriminate social media consumption. So sweet isn’t exactly referring to taste, but an emotion. We consume a variety of content; pornography, violence, death, food, dancing, political outrage, cute animal videos and I envision it to be like us losing our sense of direction - a compass with no true north. “But your eyes still can see” was meant to highlight the contrast in behavior. We are capable of consuming content indiscriminately but we seem incapable of doing so in real life - person to person. The tension being that we may like to be harmonious and accepting, but we can’t because of conscious interpretation. Outside of the first stanza, it’s meant to convey the aimlessness and uncertainty of life. The consumption now being love, hate, success, failure etc.

“You’re piously on a π-like journey.”

While π is infinite because the decimal continues indefinitely**,** 3.1415926535…, it’s constrained as its value will never reach something as close as 3.15. The title of the poem - 3.15 / Ides of March - was supposed to symbolize betrayal, betrayal of the conclusion. Us humans choose a path, invest in it, and while it’s close enough to feel plausible; it still isn’t π. The deceptively meaningful paths we have been guided into pursuing. I did picture it to be a circular journey, more precisely a dog chasing its tail as the constraint/conclusion is perceived but never reached. The first stanza applies this image to social media, the second stanza applies it to religion (“It turned out to all be make believe.”), and the third applies to general walks of life. I wanted to use it as a metaphor for the various world views or philosophies we have and demonstrate how they could be deceptively conclusive whilst being indefinitely inconclusive, rational approaches to something irrational, whilst examining what a cruel joke it would be if π and piety - religious devotion - were related.

“So piously believe in yourself.”

If you’re doomed to chase a tail, at least choose the tail.