Not Whole: A Poem About Numbers

Not whole,

Misunderstood,

Embattled,

Controlled,

Wasting away …

            In this series

            Of fives

            Behind which

            The two through eights

            Play.

                                    What to do

                                    But try to fix?

                                    And meddle

                                    And TWIST

                                    And subvert

                                    And move

                                               The ‘immovable’ from Five to Six …

                                                Seven Tethered to the Eight

                                                Because she cannot

                                                Climb very easily alone;

                                                She rolls.

                                                She comes in on horseback

                                                Or her highness, the eight,

                                                must be ROLLED up the hill.

                                                                        And, as always,

                                                                        Almost against her will

                                                                        The Nine shows up

                                                                        To a spectacle of

                                                                        Numbers gone wrong

                                                                        Through sloth and waste,

                                                                        Inefficiency and haste

                                                                        She sweeps the ashes, still combustible,

                                                                        And jars them, till numbers become capable.