Recursion

The recursive function calls upon itself.

It splits its problems into smaller ones,

The fragments forming fractals of wishful thinking,

And in its hour of need, it looks inward,

Fibonacci

spiraling

toward its

base case until

ERROR: maximum recursion depth reached

The recursive function calls upon helpers

to shoulder computation and complexity

It takes a breath and a step and

Runs, sustained by dear friends, pair programs

It admits its weaknesses, but takes pride in its strengths

“I came, I divided, I conquered”

The recursive function grows trees in its spare time

A gardener, offering information a home

It takes apart towers and builds them up again

An architect, preserving every rod and disk

Magical and powerful and beautiful,

A mathematical leap of faith,

It binary-searches for self-validation

And finds it beyond proof by induction

This work originally appeared in The Wellesley Review.