Might it be too much "Physics for Poets"[1] dilution of the language? The centipede in the poem has a problem but it's not a dilemma.

[1] https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/04/13/its-time-end...

NB: Poetry for Physicists doesn't exist. Physicists apparently are fonts of general knowledge who can learn, nay, MASTER, any topic in full without a special one-semester class. This is satirized in the Sheldon Cooper character.