Kit Kelen #1136 - notes towards a book of numbers (for godsbother)

1136

notes towards

a book of numbers

(for godsbother)

everyone wants into a bible

so many pages!

and you can be extra there

no one will notice

(this was Moses’ fourth

just for instance)

we, first never one

but me!

they were these faces over

and big

closer and closer

we were

hour day minute month

think chaos

randomize!

time bent to space, back

and the Lord commanded it

it was job creation

then think of a number between one and ten

consider journeys, banishments

Land of ’Ish is approximate

(your GPS won’t work in there)

but every age is magic

think!

and think again

I was becoming one

numbers were colours

this was as far back

and further

a watch!

and time ticked forth to tell

(was wristed)

how I was ten then

and they had me

ladder up, washing for sin

a shekel and a silver charger

five oxen, three rams, two he-goats

make the two trumpets of silver

mouth to mouth in dark speeches

manna as coriander seed

one year ten years and ten thousand

how many make a million then?

bible was a secret so

count me in and count me out

vex and spite

divide by lot

still end up with me

behold

and google at the thing

and how many years to a wilderness?

we’re counting on you there

for a law of jealousies

and defilement

gimme

and gimme more

until I’m numb from numbering

how far till time begins?

write curses in a book to atone

an inch and take a mile

63,360

go further

perch pole

furlong chain

how many each?

too long too short

it’s 2240

that’s how heavy

how down

no need to count the ones you kill

put a thing through the fire and it’s clean

sheep from the goats

count the electrons

a way round the sun

I try to imagine a billion, can you?

we’re half way with this world

why is the infinite such a fine trick

no one can know it?

at 11.58 and 43 seconds –

species, not even tribe

and have we got the numbers now?

take this sky down for counting

call for division

ring bells

no grog or you’ll lose count

on the ninth day and so

forty for a flood

nights too

(and moonless this way)

a tenth of an ephah of barley meal

that should do the trick

what counts and what doesn’t?

that’s foremost and first

last and…

penny farthing groat

a crown

and half a sovereign

is ten shillings

the blackbirds in a pie

and counting

king in

how many for a phonebooth?

beetle, orgy

head of a pin to dance

clans of each

like a forest marching

stars and worms

our enemies

in weeks and days and hours

months!

count the blood and breath

the keys, strings

you can paint this way

make history by numbers

cadence is geometry

calculate the chords

to work out where the arrow falls

so strum

how far the heart

how long the note will hold

how many beats to the bar

these are the noble numbers!

a ransom for the first born

gimme a wagon says God

count myself lucky

go down for the count

here are the duties of a priest

and tally me banana

count the reps and breaths

calculate the collocation

and know what is said next

where a man has been killed accidentally

and forth to war, what number are we?

the Lord gave

(well you would say that)

then multiplication

there’s more

and exponentially

let no man divide

how up

how in

how over

could take a lifetime to work out

that foolish old man removed how much mountain?

until time and distance must have always been one

so got there in the end

I’d been doing the right thing all along

or else they could not  

count the laughter

count the love

count the time to go

and if so, hate

count sloppy kiss

a city of refuge for the avenger

cure myself with time

past the heart’s furthest reaches

compute it!

every word is made of number

and there are only two

one is me

then your face in my mind’s eye

we have to call this love