Rigdon – Take A Number
[Jerry sent me this poem when he realized you can’t buy an apple without a sticker.]
Take a Number – by Jerry Rigdon
The national debt
and apple sales,
highway miles and
cosmic years
all see light
in numbers.
Best-seller books,
billionaires, sea sand
and head hairs
cannot disregard
this numbered power
in computation.
Did God forget
to mark the fall of
one, only one
remaining dusty
seaside sparrow?
Spotted owls, Ivory
bills, snow, leopards
and sperm count
whales are now numbered,
tagged, and named
Waiting,
like you, for their
own extinction.
So the number set
that really counts
is how many
dances left on your
dance card.
Reckon it, compute it,
but download sums fun.
Frolic in fractal time,
string memories
and dance.
Just lose that number,
it takes forever to get
an extension.