NUMBERS

I think of numbers like
A count of breath is life 

Sometimes we subtract 
One from two leaving the one
A soul, lonely like 
A bird on the housetop
Whose fate is a vulture 
in the waste places 

And other times we add
One plus one equals to one
David's rib into Bathsheba 
A banquet of roses and daisies 

Sometimes too we multiply 
X times Y of a mighty King longing for
The arrival of Sheba from a city
On longitude X times latitude X 
Before a naming ceremony begins

Even division deceives no destiny 
Two divided into two
One going to her mother's house before night fall
The other thinking why just a 
Little lie belittled a house of four