irrational but aesthetically pleasing

I wanted us to be a shape 

that had the elegant dimensions 

 

of the golden ratio: 

a number that's irrational 

 

but aesthetically pleasing, 

like the sections 

 

of Mona Lisa's face 

that can be mapped 

 

into divine proportions, 

or the Parthenon, 

 

a golden rectangle 

inside which a perfect square 

 

can be removed repeatedly, infinitely, 

from smaller and smaller rectangles. 

 

But we were a rhombus 

whose diagonals 

 

didn't fit the formula. 

Angular and sharp, 

 

stuck on parallel sides, 

neither pleasing 

 

to the eye nor perfect— 

Greek for spinning top. 

 

 [Teresa Leo 'Golden Ratio', from Bloom in Reverse]